Honoring My Great Uncle

**Riverkilt** · 11th November 11, 02:28 PM

My great uncle Charles Lewis Scott was a boy of 18 when he enlisted in the 163rd Infantry, part of the 41st Division - the Sunset Division - a lot of boys from Montana. He served in France and his service medal has been handed down to me.

At our 11th local Veteran's Day Parade on 11-11-11, I decided to honor his service and put some heritage into the parade. I wore a doughboy hat, replica War One jacket, and the Scott Modern tartan.

The haversack was for the candy I carried to toss to the wee kids along the way. No easy task since they gave me the U.S. Army flag to carry in the color guard too.

Here's a pic without the haversack.

There were extensive activities in the city park after the parade - speeches - band music - and even a fly over. I ran into the younger brother of the first local boy killed in Irag. The younger brother is on active duty and due to ship over soon.

A bit of contrast between two uniforms 100 years apart.

We were also honored to have two of the last living Navajo Code Talkers as grand marshals of the parade.

Dan Akee (l) also was celebrating his 90th birthday today. Bahe Ketchum (r) was the other Marine code talker grand marshal.

Page, Arizona may be a small rural town, but we have hundreds of veterans living here and we turn out for the parade every year.

For new members, my own cold war service was so meager, I usually honor the service of my relatives during the parade.