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Nearly 40 people gathered at the Opera House on Saturday evening for the annual VFW dinner honoring past and present veterans. Douglas Dickover, commander of VFW Post #8194, helped organize and host the event.
Left to right: Larry Etter, Tricia Etter, Gladys Goicoechea, Pete Goicoechea, Jim Baumann and Vera Baumann enjoy the VFW Veterans Day Dinner.
In addition to recognizing the veterans in attendance, Dickover recognized Eureka’s newest military recruits, who are already on active duty or will begin serving soon.
Heather Hubbard, a 2021 ECHS graduate who joined the Navy, recently returned from a deployment in the Middle East.
Quade Filippini, a 2022 ECHS graduate, graduated from the Air Force Academy in May of this year. He is now stationed in Enid, Oklahoma, where he will spend the next three years in flight training. His younger brother, Quil, has followed in his footsteps and is also attending the Air Force Academy.
Left to right: Art Nava and Wendy Block at the VFW dinner, Saturday, Nov. 7.
Other young community members who recently joined the military include Jaren Bludworth, Daniel Sanders and Brendan Dickover. Two of them joined the Marine Corps and are stationed in the East.
Attendees also included Jim Baumann and Johnny Minoletti, members of the 1966 Army National Guard, and Larry Etter, who served in Vietnam and Desert Storm. George Pierce, who served 14 months in Germany, traveled from Spring Creek to attend.
Pierce related some of his service: “I was sent to Germany in the spring of 1971 and was stationed at Ayer’s Kaserne, AKA ‘The Rock.’ My first assigned duty was as a forward observer for a mortar platoon, calling in coordinates when training at the two training areas, Hohenfels and Grafenwohr.”
Community and student involvement has long been central to the local VFW post. The post hosts the annual July softball tournament and recently took over the annual September car show.
The local organization also administers a veterans park on Main Street donated in honor of service members.
Left to right: Egan Allred, Elden Allred and George Pierce. Eldon Allred was in the Air Force, stationed in Elmendorf in Anchorage, Alaska, and at Nellis in Las Vegas. He was deployed to the UAE. Pierce, an Army veteran, served 14 months in Germany. He travelled from Spring Creek to attend.
In addition, the local post supports two essay contests locally: the VFW Patriot’s Pen and the Voice of Democracy. The recent theme for one of the contests was “What Have You Learned From a Veteran?” The essays that followed surprised Dickover.
“A lot wrote that they have never met a veteran,” he told the group at the dinner. “Veterans are not as well known as they were before.”
Yet Dickover’s pride in his country was clear, as he spoke about new military members and addressed the veterans attending the dinner.
“It is amazing to walk through the cemeteries here and see veterans who have served the country,” he noted.
“I served in the Marines for over 25 years, serving three combat deployments. Twice in Iraq and once in Afghanistan,” Dickover said. He retired from active duty in 2019 to join his wife and children in Eureka. They have two daughters and one son, Brendan, who is stationed on the East Coast.