Lake Travis View

By Eleni Himaras
reporter@ltview.com
While rainy weather forced this year’s Veteran’s Day celebration indoors and caused the scheduled fly-over to be cancelled, the spirit of the day soared as the standing-room only crowd gathered to remember our veterans.

“The act of honoring our veterans is far more important than where we do it,” Mayor Steve Swan told the crowd.
“We are a small community with a giant-sized pride.”
The community is home to many veterans and the day saw much of the crowd rise up as veterans of various conflicts were called to stand for applause. The only conflict without a representative veteran in attendance was the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Activity Center Events Coordinator Dallas Gorman proudly raised her hand as the only Desert Storm veteran.
Retired Navy Captain and Heritage Center Archivist Mike Boston read aloud the 11 new names added this year to the Heritage Park monument recognizing Lakeway veterans past and present.
The names of Albert M. Spurgat, Navy, World War II; Mitchell J. Mikula, Army Air Corps, World War II; Keith L. Proctor, Navy/Air Force, World War II and Korea; Melvin Neese, Air Force, Korea/Vietnam; Thomas B. Smith, Army, Korea; Stephen J. Bangs, Air Force, Vietnam; William Mason Evans, Air Force, Vietnam; Hal Sheads, Air Force, Vietnam; Jerry L. Cole, Marine Corps, Vietnam; Terry R. Delooze, Marine Corps, Vietnam; and Lyle L. Groff, Army, Iraq, were added to the Spirit fo Freedom Monument.
Many of those recognized were in attendance or represented by a loved one like the deceased Stephen J. Bangs.
“Lyle Groff and his parents are in Georgia today, where he is preparing for his second deployment to Iraq,” Boston told the crowd.
The reading of names and recognition of veterans to the sounds of the Lake Travis High School band set the patriotic tone for the day and keynote speaker Mildred “Millie” Dalrymple and soloist Kalie Naftzger brought it to a crescendo.
Dalrymple shared her experience as a WASP (Women Airforce Service Pilot) and humbly stated that she felt as though she was the least deserving veteran in the room to be giving a speech.
“I feel insignificant because at that time women, everybody, was doing all the could. It was a war,” she said of her service.
The 5’3” woman joined the service after her first husband, Bill Davidson, a B-17 pilot, was shot down over the North Sea in 1943. Her humor and grace shown through in her stories such as the time she and a group of 15 other trainees got lost near Avenger Field in Sweetwater when the railroad tracks they typically used to navigate home became covered in snow.
“We just flew around in circles waiting for someone to come save us girls,” she smiled. “Then this beautiful 86 arrived on the horizon… He had flown two tours of combat but when he saw all those amateur pilots flying at him from every direction, he said he was scared to death.”
The WASPs were disbanded in 1944 with no G.I. benefits or recognition, despite the fact that 38 of them were killed in the line of duty. Dalrymple, though, says she harbors no ill will or bitterness towards the government and considers herself to be “one of the luckiest women in the United States to have had the opportunity.”
Her speech was met with loud applause when the 11-year-old Kalie Naftzger took the stage to serenade the crowd. By the time she finished “God Bless America” and “Proud to be an American,” there were few dry eyes to be found.