By ED RUNYAN

Staff writer

YOUNGSTOWN — Veterans Day, celebrated Monday in the rotunda of the Mahoning County Courthouse, is a day to recognize veterans serving now and those who served in the past, explained Terry Johnson, commander of the United Veteran’s Council of Greater Youngstown.

Memorial Day is for those who have passed on, he said.

The concept of Veterans Day has undergone changes since Congress dedicated Nov. 11, 1918, as Armistice Day to remember the end of World War I. President Dwight Eisenhower signed legislation in 1954 creating Veteran­s Day to honor American veterans of all wars.

With that history in mind, two military veterans started Monday’s rotunda ceremony by carrying a wreath from the courthouse to World War I Man on the Monument on Central Square a few blocks away and placing it there.

Next were remarks back at the courthouse from Rick Williams, associate director of the Office of Veterans Affairs at Youngstown State University.

“When I think of veterans, I don’t typically think of myself,” Williams said.

“Sure I did serve 26 years in the Army, and I’m extremely proud of that service. About half of that time was as a full-time soldier, the other half as a Reservist or ‘weekend warrior’ in the National Guard.

“I’m somewhat of an anomaly. Somehow, I served 26 continuous years in the military but never saw combat,” he said. “We all have different paths our service takes us,” he said.

Williams, a Lisbon native, is one of 15 children and has two brothers who did see combat in the military, one of whom spent four years “in foreign countries fighting our country’s wars,” Williams said.

He respects the service of those who saw combat and thinks the support of American military veterans “is at an all-time high.”

When he was an active Reservist in Canton and would stop at a gas station or grocery store on his way home while wearing his uniform, “somebody was always thanking me for my service, introducing me to their kids or trying to pay for something,” he said

“America, for the most part, loves its veterans. I know this was not always the case. Today’s generation of veterans should not take this environment for granted.”

Carl Nunziato, for whom the YSU Veterans Resource Center was named last year, “tells me stories about his return from Vietnam, specifically how he was treated at the airport. People spat on him, called him names laced with [foul] language, told him he would have just been better off to just die in Vietnam,” Williams said.

“I have a tremendous amount of respect for the way Mr. Nunziato and others like him responded. Many went to college, founded businesses, became successful members of society and contributors to their communities and nation.”

In his job, Williams serves more than 350 veterans and their dependents who use veterans’ benefits at YSU.

One of the most touching assignments of his military career was in 2005 when he was assigned as a casualty-assistance officer for a 44-year-old Austintown woman, whose Army sergeant husband was killed in Iraq. She was the mother of one daughter, 11, and a son, 18.

“She was still in shock. She truly had no idea what the next day held for her and her children,” he said of his first meeting with her.

About eight years later, in his his current job at YSU, a young transfer student walked into his office looking for help.

“I recognized her name immediately. She was that 11-year old girl from 2005 who had lost her dad in Iraq.” She was using a military scholarship that gives education benefits dependents of those killed in war.

“This thing had come full circle for me. I dedicated myself to making sure that this young lady was taken care of from the time she entered YSU until the day she graduated,” he said.

“I felt that sense of duty, that responsibility, that obligation to thank that fallen sergeant first class for his sacrifice and service by making sure his daughter used her benefits to the fullest.

“With each veteran, I try to take that same level of care,” he said.

erunyan@tribtoday.com