Gary Powell is shown with his granddaughter, Delaney Schultz, and her friends Brooke Montgomery and Breanna Wolford.
When Gary Powell came home after serving in the military in Thailand in 1971, he flew into San Francisco. It wasn’t the most welcoming city at the time.
“That was during the hippie (era) and Woodstock and all that stuff,” Powell said. “They just snubbed their nose and turned their backs.”
Flash forward to 2024, and public attitudes toward military service have changed. On Nov. 11, Powell walked into Brookfield High School wearing a cap that identified him as a “Vietnam Era Veteran,” met up with his granddaughter, Delaney Schultz, and enjoyed breakfast with Delaney and some of her friends.
“It’s a great honor to participate in these,” Powell said of the high school’s second annual Veterans’ Breakfast. Student council sponsors the event. Club Adviser Mary Arp said a lot of students don’t have someone who served in the military in their families. The breakfast is a way to thank vets, show that they are out there and promote the idea of service, she said.
Air Force reservist Eric Martin enjoys breakfast with his cousin, Rylie Burdge.
“It’s a good experience to see our community honoring veterans and having a little get together with the kids,” said Eric Martin, an Air Force Reserve loadmaster at the Youngstown Air Reserve Station in Vienna. Martin was invited by his cousin, Rylie Burdge.
A 2013 Brookfield grad, Martin said, “You get to see some people that you haven’t seen in a long time. One of my coaches is here. Just some people that you’ve grown up around and haven’t seen them for a while. It’s another opportunity to bump shoulders with them.”
Rylie said she talks to Martin about his service “all the time.”
“He’s one of my biggest role models and I really enjoy talking to him,” Rylie said. “Every time I talk to him I get very intrigued in doing it,” she said of military service.
Senior Airman Marlaina Marek
Marlaina Marek, a 2020 Brookfield grad, said the Air Force Reserves allowed her to achieve several post-graduation goals: going to college, traveling and not living too far from home. She became a ground transportation journeyman based at the Vienna air base.
“My job in the Air Force was to transport any equipment, cargo, people, either across the base or across country,” she said, adding that she also served on missions in Germany and the United Kingdom.
A senior airman, Marek is now a full-time recruiter. She said she hopes her story illustrates what she thinks Veterans’ Day is all about.
“Celebrating veterans is about recognizing all the veterans’ service prior or current; yet, I like to think that Veterans’ Day is not just about thanking these people for the time that they have done, but also recognizing and becoming familiar with that they are members of a community,” Marek said.
