Spokane native Jeff Kusterer joined the Army in 1964 as, he recalled, a “20-year-old, bright-eyed kid.”
The draft was just starting, his number was coming up, and he figured, might as well enlist first. After training, he went into Vietnam in 1967 with Special Forces. During the following three years, he would find himself in many a hostile spot in the field.
“One day we were on a mission with a small force,” Kusterer said, “and we ran into a (North Vietnamese Army) battalion. We spent about nine hours trading shots with each other before we were able to break contact, and enough air support came in to solve our problems.”
On Saturday, Kusterer, 64, stood on a sidewalk, taking in the sights and sounds of the Auburn Veterans Day parade. The graying soldier came to be honored and to “see other members of our community that served and gave up part of their regular life to support our country,” he said.
The two-hour parade down Main Street, the second largest of its kind west of the Mississippi River, featured scores of veterans’ groups – from the Inter-Tribal Warrior Society to the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, the Military Order of the Purple Heart, and many more.
To wild cheering and applause, active members from the Navy, Marines, Air Force and Coast Guard stepped smartly alongside bands tootling patriotic melodies, a rolling display of military equipment and scores of elected officials, among them recently re-elected Governor Christine Gregoire and U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert.
Ron Forest, who caught the parade with is buddies, served with the Navy Seabees in Vietnam from October 1966 to December 1967. He was part of a construction battalion attached to the Marines, building roads, airports, bridges and mess halls. He left the Navy in 1968 and returned to his old job as a carpenter.
Forest went to the parade to honor veterans, but he had a few things to say about the war in Iraq.
“This parade is about memories of where we have been and where we are now, where we should be and where we shouldn’t be,” Forest said. “I and most of my chapter are against this war in Iraq. We think it’s asinine. We’ve got our pins on that say, ‘Bring ’em home.’ You can’t ignore the situation.”
Another spectator was Jim Beal, 55. He served with the Army in Vietnam, “lost a good friend” to combat, and considers Veterans Day “a very good time to honor the service of all the guys throughout the years, the ones who did come back and the ones who didn’t,” he said. “People need to remember that a lot of people gave up a lot so that we have what we have in this country. We can walk down the street and nobody is asking for our papers. Sure, we’ve got our problems, but I’ve been to third-world countries, and, boy, we’ve got it pretty good.”
