Veterans Day 2009

Kim and I drove to Salt Lake City to attend the University of Utah's 2009 Veterans Day Commemoration. This is reportedly one of the largest Veterans Day commemorations on a college campus in the United States. Eleven special veterans were honored, one of whom is my father, Lieutenant Colonel Jay C. Hess (USAF retired). Also in attendance were some of the honorees from previous years.


While perusing the http://www.veteransday.utah.edu website, I was reminded that my maternal grandfather was among the first group of veterans honored by the U. of U on Veterans Day back in 1998. Kenneth Burnett, is the one in the photograph with the cane. He was born in 1895 and was 103 years old in 1998. He lived two more years and died early in 2001 at the age of 105, having lived in 3 different centuries. To my knowledge, he was one of the last living World War I veterans from Utah. He reportedly served as a bodyguard for President Woodrow Wilson on a trip to France, the first US President to visit Europe.


I'm grateful for the honorable service of all United States military veterans, both alive and dead, both within and without my own family.

Later that night, Kim and I attended the opening night/dress rehearsal of the BYU Music-Dance-Theatre (MDT) Department's production of "Children of Eden", in which Zach was performing. Zach and the cast did their best performing an odd, doctrinely incorrect play of Steven Schwartz's interpretation of the first part of the Book of Genesis.
http://www.byuarts.com/calendar/eventdescription_v2.php?eventid=57