The Pushmataha Area Council honored veterans of America’s armed forces at an “On My Honor” Dinner for Scouting April 15 at the Hunter Henry Center on Mississippi State’s campus.
Executive Board member Sid Salter was master of ceremonies at the event that opened with presentation of the American flag, the Pledge of Allegiance and recitation of the Scout Promise and Scout Law.
The keynote speaker was Lt. Gen. Harold Cross, who recently retired as Adjutant General of Mississippi for the Army and Air National Guard.
Gen. Cross, of Flowood, served as an Air Force Command Pilot, logging 5,000 hours and seeing air combat in Desert Storm and Panama. He commanded Mississippi’s military response to Hurricane Katrina, supervising 15,000 guardsmen during the natural disaster. Gen. Cross spent considerable time with American troops in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
In his inspiring commentary, Gen. Cross described religious intolerance, the absence of basic human rights, and the threat of genocide that exists in many of the world’s nations. He contrasted those situations to the civil liberties, religious tolerance and freedom of speech enjoyed by Americans. Interspersed with bits of relevant poetic verse, the general’s presentation struck a patriotic chord with those in attendance.
Allen McBroom, vice president of programs for the Scout Council, read the names of veterans being honored. Scout executive Jeremy Whitmore presented each veteran with a framed Norman Rockwell print to commemorate the evening.
Veterans honored were Airman FC Larry Crenshaw; 1st Lt. David Jackson, who is currently serving as a combat pilot in the US Air Force; PFC B.A. Atkins, who served in Korea as a Marine; Col. Lowell Scales of the U.S. Army Air Corps, who served in World War II and Korea; U.S. Rep. G.V. (Sonny) Montgomery, who served in the U.S. Army in WWII as a 2nd Lt., and after the war as a Major General in the Mississippi National Guard; Staff Sgt. Al Cummings, U.S. Army in WWII; Lt. Col. Bob Gilbert, who served with the U.S. Army in WWII and Korea; Chief Warrant Officer Sam Pilkinton III, who served in Vietnam, central America and Iraq; and Lt. Col. Estel Wilson Jr., who served his country from WWII to Vietnam.
The evening concluded with a rendition of “Courage Was The Light,” authored by Dr. J. Barton Williams, and the retiring of the colors by the Boy Scouts.
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