Woster: Remembering the quiet heroes who never thought of themselves that way

I had the opportunity 25 years ago to interview several military veterans as South Dakota prepared to unveil a memorial to state residents who served in World War II. The other day, as Nov. 11 and Veterans Day neared, I leafed through some of my story clips to remind myself of some of those interviews and of what those vets told me about their time in uniform, their thoughts on war and what it meant to have a memorial near the Flaming Fountain on Capitol Lake in Pierre. The memorial, as anyone knows who attended the September 2001 celebration or who has visited the Capitol in the past 25 years, has six sculptures representing each branch of the armed service. Republican Gov. Bill Janklow was in office at the time. He spearheaded the project and the weekend celebration that drew an estimated 25,000 people to the capital city. If you look at the six figures, you’ll see that the one representing the U.S. Marine Corp is just a little bigger than the others. Well, sure.

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