By Timothy Loftus, Editor & Publisher | Sergeant Bluff Advocate
(SBA) - On Nov. 4, David Early stopped at the American Legion hall in Sergeant Bluff after working an overnight shift. Early, who served nearly 21 years with the Iowa Air National Guard’s 185th Air Refueling Wing, ran into someone he had served with. They got a chance to catch up over breakfast. The Woodbury County Commission of Veteran Affairs organized the meal and held it at George Nelson American Legion Post 662, serving between 120 and 125 people that morning.
I keep coming back to that story of that chance meeting. A Veterans Day speech can tell us why service matters. A table at the Legion hall gives two people who served together a chance to find out how life has gone since they last saw each other. For those of us in Sergeant Bluff and the surrounding towns, both belong in the observance. We owe veterans public recognition, and we owe them the attention we give a neighbor when we sit down and listen.
The date goes back to the morning of Nov. 11, 1918. At 11 a.m., an armistice between Germany and the Allies took effect and the fighting stopped. The Treaty of Versailles followed in 1919. That November, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the first Armistice Day. Congress made Nov. 11 a legal holiday in 1938 and dedicated it to world peace. The date held both the memory of what people had endured and the hope that others might be spared the same experience.
After World War II and the Korean War, Congress broadened the observance. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the legislation renaming it Veterans Day in 1954. The federal observance moved to a Monday in October for several years, beginning in 1971. President Gerald Ford signed the law that restored Nov. 11 beginning in 1978. Today we honor Americans who served in war and in peacetime, with a special opportunity to thank those who are still with us.
That wider observance matters in a community where military service can look different from one household to the next. One family may remember a deployment overseas. Another may remember years of drill weekends and the work of keeping a household going around them. Setting aside a day gives each of those experiences a place in our shared history.
George J. Nelson
Here, the history of the armistice has a name. George J. Nelson grew up on a farm near Salix and served as an Army private in the 129th Infantry. He died in France on Oct. 15, 1918, at age 23, after a gas attack during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. The fighting ended less than a month later. He is buried at the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery. In 2018, on the centennial of his death, the Sergeant Bluff post that bears his name lowered the 38 flags outside its hall in his honor.
A person could pass the Legion hall for years before learning who George Nelson was. Post members shared photographs and genealogical research at the post’s 75th anniversary celebration in 2016. Among the photographs were a portrait of Nelson in a suit and tie, one of him in uniform in France and one of his grave marker. For a young person here, those pictures offer a place to begin understanding what a war fought an ocean away cost one local family.
In 2025, American Legion Post 662 raised $2,000 for Midwest Honor Flight at a community breakfast in Sergeant Bluff. On June 3, 85 veterans flew from Sioux Gateway Airport to Washington, D.C., to visit the memorials built to honor their service. At the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, some made rubbings of names they recognized on the wall. Others took time to remember friends they had lost and reflect on their own years in uniform. The neighbors who came out for those Legion breakfasts in Sergeant Bluff helped make that day possible.
At Sergeant Bluff’s CommCon 19 on Oct. 21, Jerry Logemann, representing George Nelson American Legion Post 662, presented a concept for the new Sergeant Bluff Veterans Memorial on Topaz Drive featuring a 20-foot granite wall. The names engraved on bricks at the existing memorial would be transferred to the new memorial. In 2024, the Advocate reported that more than 600 bricks bore the names of living and deceased veterans. The Missouri River Historical Development awarded Post 662 a $10,000 grant for the project in May 2026. Logemann said the Legion is seeking to raise $58,000. Donations can be mailed to Post 662 or arranged by contacting the Legion directly. Carrying those names forward means a child will still have a place to look for a grandparent’s name, and a veteran can come back to find the name of someone they served with.
Each year, I cover American Legion Post 662’s Memorial Day service at Woodbury Township Cemetery. The ceremony includes a reading of “In Flanders Fields” and the Sergeant Bluff-Luton Band playing the national anthem. Neighbors of all ages gather to remember those who died in military service. When the students play the anthem, they take part in a tradition they may someday help carry on.
Post 662 also helps families say goodbye. In August 2024, it joined the U.S. Air Force in providing military honors for Kermit Lee at St. Joseph Catholic Cemetery in Salix. Lee, a World War II veteran from Sloan, had been a Legion member for 78 years. The month before he passed, the American Legion Auxiliary Unit 662 and the Quilts of Valor Foundation’s western Iowa coordinator presented him with a quilt. He also received a certificate recognizing his years of Legion membership.
After his military service, Lee farmed in the Sergeant Bluff and Sloan areas, served on a conservation board and took on leadership roles in local drainage districts. Those responsibilities rarely draw a crowd, but they affect the people who live and work on the land. Across the years, Lee’s neighbors could see his commitment in the local work he kept taking on.
The county’s breakfast also points to work that goes on year-round. Woodbury County Veteran Affairs helps veterans and their eligible dependents apply for state and federal benefits. A holiday gives us a chance to ask whether the people we thank know where to turn for help. If a veteran or a surviving spouse is sorting through paperwork, putting them in touch with someone who can help is one way to put that gratitude to work.
Some veterans will spend Nov. 11 at work or at home caring for family. Some will be glad to talk about where they served. Others may prefer to tell us about their lives now. We can follow their lead. We can also take a child to the memorial, make time for the next Legion breakfast or call someone we meant to check on months ago. The gesture can be as ordinary as making room at a table. What matters is that we make time for it after November, too.
To the veterans of Sergeant Bluff, Luton, Salix, Sloan and the rest of Siouxland, and to every veteran across the country, thank you for serving the United States with pride and honor. To those who continue to serve, in uniform overseas or here at home, thank you for all you give. And to the families who have shared in that service, please know that our gratitude extends to you as well.
