American Legion Post 17 honors veterans

A new memorial was unveiled following a Veterans Day ceremony Nov. 11 at American Legion Post 17 in Lewes.

Retired First Sgt. Michael Bellerose was joined by Post Commander Steve Missimer, Auxiliary President Kellie Bergen and Sons of the American Legion Squadron Commander Doug Spelman in removing a camouflage tent covering a 3-foot-tall steel obelisk sitting atop a base of sandbags. A concrete slab beneath the memorial will be made to look like a desert surface, then surrounded by hundreds of memorial bricks. 

The obelisk, made of the same steel as a C-5 Galaxy, honors veterans of Middle East service and contains the dog tags of the 7,132 service members who died in that region. 

“Every year in May, we have our event at Cape Henlopen State Park,” said Bellerose, the CEO of Race 4 Warriors, a nonprofit organization. “Before our racers take off, we take a moment of silence and an honor guard member comes up and they put into the obelisk dog tags from every veteran who has died in the Middle East over the last year.”

While the obelisk is now in place at Post 17, he said, the tradition will continue at future events. He said the group plans to march from Cape Henlopen State Park to American Legion Post 17 every year to add new dog tags to the memorial. The goal and hope, he said, is that one day they won’t have any dog tags to add. 

Each dog tag contains the name, rank, service, location and date for the service member. After personally entering all of the information into a database, Bellerose said he learned the majority of the dog tags belonged to men and women ranked E-1 to E-5. 

“That’s 18 to 25,” he said. “So a lot of our young men and women went overseas and gave the ultimate sac. That really hit home.”

While the obelisk honors those lost in the Middle East, he said, the entire memorial honors all veterans. To veterans, he said, it doesn’t matter in which war/conflict or branch someone served. 

“It’s our way to remind our civilian population that our veterans are still serving; our veterans are still deploying; our veterans are still dying to defend freedom around the world,” he said. 

To learn more about the memorial and the ongoing brick program, go to race4warriors.org.