Another Memorable Day

It was a chilly and windy day at the Highland Cemetery in Adams last Monday but the weather did not deter a large crowd of people from gathering. The VFW and American Legion Posts from Adams presented the colors. The audience was led in the Pledge of Allegiance by State Senator Myron Dorn and the Star-Spangled Banner was sung by Freeman High School student Hannah Stanley. The guest speaker was Sergeant Jarod Ideus from the Nebraska National Guard. In addition the Forest Acres Quilting Club was honored to award Quilts of Valor to Dennis Heusman and Ken Borcher, both of Sterling.

Dennis Heusman is a 25-year veteran of the Nebraska Army National Guard having enlisted in June of 1970. After spending three months at Fort Ord, California for basic training he then spent three and a half months at Fort Polk, Louisiana for mechanized infantry advanced training. In preparation for deployment to Vietnam Dennis participated in jungle training which switched to desert training when the Vietnam War ended. Additional duties included providing security after the 1974 tornado in Grand Island as well as the 1975 tornado in Omaha. Dennis earned the rank of E7 Sergeant 1st Class and was discharged in 1995.

Dennis’s quilt was made from a pattern called Four-Patch Fun by Just Sew. This pattern gave us a chance to use up quite a bit of fabric from our scrap stash. I stitched an all-over star design using my favorite gold thread to finish this quilt.

Ken Borcher enlisted in the Army after graduating from high school in 1997. He was sent to Fort Jackson, South Carolina for basic training. He then went to Fort Gordon (now known as Fort Eisenhower) in Georgia for Advanced Individual Training as a Multichannel Radio System Operator. Following this training he was stationed at Fort Hood (now Fort Cavazos) in Texas before going to Camp Red Cloud in South Korea. Ken left active duty in 2001 with the rank of Specialist E4 and joined the Texas National Guard. In 2005 he was deployed to Iraq where he provided voice and data communication in support of the Squadron Command. In 2008 he was once again deployed to Iraq where he maintained the radio communication and signal jamming systems in vehicles that provided security for supply convoys that were traveling throughout Iraq. Ken left the Texas National Guard in 2010 with the rank of Staff Sergeant.

Ken’s quilt was made from a pattern called Oh! Say Can You See? from the book All-Star Quilts of Valor published for the Quilts of Valor Foundation. The panel was donated to all Quilt of Valor sewing groups a few years ago. When I received it in the mail I was struck by the fact that there was no red, white, or blue in the panel. How were we ever going to be able to use this in a quilt? Once we started pulling greens and golds in various shades from my stash it all began to make sense. And we included a red square in the middle of each log cabin block - just to have a bit of patriotic color in the quilt as well as to preserve the tradition of the log cabin block. Once the quilt was put together it quickly became one of our favorites - although we can honestly say we feel that way about every quilt we make!

The ceremony at the cemetery ended with the annual shooting of the cannon. Our quilting group was grateful to be a part of this meaningful remembrance of those who sacrificed their lives for our freedom.

Memorial Day photo credits: Sharon Harms