Katrina Sargent

This weekend, local organizers offer many opportunities for SDSU students and the Brookings Community members to show their appreciation to the men and women who have served in the armed services.

Starting on Nov. 9, the SDSU Veterans Club is collecting goods for troops overseas. They will accept donations from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in The Union. Suggested items are letters, t-shirts, candy, jerky, dried or preserved foods, games, and thank you notes.

On Nov. 10 from 8:30 a.m. to 11 a.m., the American Legion is hosting a pancake breakfast.

The ROTC will hold its annual Veterans Vigil beginning at 11 a.m. on Nov. 10 at the Veterans Memorial on Western Avenue and 8th Street West.

On Nov. 11, the Elks Club is sponsoring the Veterans Day Pancake Feed at the American Legion from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. At 11 a.m. the ROTC vigil will conclude with a retirement of the flags at the Veterans Memorial. At 2 p.m., a Community Veterans Day program will be held at the Swiftel Center.

“Our country’s current period of war has also created veterans in our younger generations,” said the executive officers of the SDSU Veterans Club in a press release. According to the club there are more than 350 veterans and students involved

“Veterans’ Day is important because it is very easy to overlook and take our rights for granted as well as the people past and present who have chosen to stand up and make sure these rights are safeguarded,” said Colin Simpson. Simpson is an SDSU student who spent three years in active duty with the Third Armored Cavalry Regiment and two years with the National Guard 235th Military Police Company.

The following stories come from accounts provided by the SDSU Veterans Club. These men are all connected to the Brookings area or SDSU.

Harvey Texley was serving in WWII while his peers attended college. Texley landed on Omaha Beach a few days after the invasion of Normandy in 1944. German soldiers captured while he was on a scouting mission in Holland in Oct. 1944. Texley was taken to Auschwitz, and later moved to Luckenwalde, a multi-national prisoner of war camp. Texley was eventually rescued, and 37 years after being discharged from the Army, he graduated from SDSU in 1982.

While Texley was landing on Omaha Beach, Lyle Davis was finishing his Ranger training. He was dropped off at a beach near Anzio in Italy. He and his unit fought the Germans, trying to break up supply lines and sneak around artillery. They were captured by the Germans and used as farm laborers. When the Russians came closer to the place they were held, and were forced to march 250 miles. “Have you ever walked all day on cobblestones? I don’t recommend it, there’s nothing smooth about cobblestone roads,” said Davis. The Russians eventually liberated the group, and Davis returned home. Most of his post-war years were spent working as an electrician for SDSU.

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