THANK YOU BOB, THANK YOU MERIDIAN HIGH SCHOOL

My brother, Bob Fjellman, left high school in his junior year to join the marines in 1943, fibbing about his age in order to do so. He was sent to the South Pacific where he engaged in heavy combat, losing many friends and fellow marines during that dreadful time. Luckily he returned home to marry and eventually start a successful construction company.  

Five years ago he was honored at a Veteran’s Day assembly at Meridian High School, receiving a long delayed diploma amid much pomp and circumstance.

Sadly Bob passed away in June at the age of 87.  His remaining siblings,  Maxine Beebe, Judy Fjellman and Jan Lind-Sherman returned last week to Meridian where they had also graduated many years before.  At the 2013 Veteran’s Day Assembly, they expressed their appreciation to the school by presenting the library with three large, inscribed coffee table books about the marines, WWII and an atlas about war from antiquity to the present day.  It is important here to recognize the students of Meridian, whose amazingly respectful and polite behavior,  shows us the future of our country is in good hands.

Getting back to Bob, like most veterans who saw active duty in war torn areas, he did not talk about his experiences.  We can only imagine how horrible and life changing those experiences were.  So for him, and the hundreds of thousands of others who fought, died and were forever altered,   I say a heartfelt thanks on Veteran's Day, 2013.  The following quotation by Lane Evans best expresses my feelings.

“Without the brave efforts of all the soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines and their families, this Nation, along with our allies around the world, would not stand so boldly, shine so brightly and live so freely.”