Iowa Walk for Veterans: 'A capstone of a great year'

Over the past year, American Legion National Commander Dale Barnett has walked nearly 100 miles alongside more than 2,800 Legion Family members in communities nationwide to raise awareness about issues facing veterans today and to tell the Legion’s story. The Awareness Walks for Veterans have taken Barnett and the Legion Family across the campus of Marshall University in West Virginia, which inspired the 2006 movie “We Are Marshall;” over Edmund Pettus Bridge, which is part of the civil rights trail in Selma, Ala.; on the beaches in Virginia; on the Oregon Trail; and more.

On Monday, Barnett lead his 43rd and final Walk for Veterans as national commander alongside more than 340 Department of Iowa Legion Family members in the Iowa State Fair Veterans Day Parade.

“As we began this journey of trying to implement awareness walks across the nation, I had no idea I would be walking today, probably in front of 100,000 people with over 300 of my Iowa American Legion Family members hand in hand with me. That’s got to be a capstone of a great year as national commander,” Barnett said.

The Iowa State Fair Veterans Day Parade is a longstanding tradition of the fair where Legion Family members, servicemembers and other veterans groups parade down the Grand Concourse on foot, aboard military floats or in vehicles in front of thousands of supportive spectators.

“As you walk through people thank you for your service; it makes you proud,” said Jim Peterson, immediate past Department of Iowa commander. “It’s amazing to see all the people out here on Veterans Day (at the fair) and for us to be able to get out the Legion message.”

During his time as department commander, Peterson energized Legion Family members throughout the state about participating in the Awareness Walk for Veterans, held in conjunction with the the Iowa State Fair Veterans Day Parade.

“We had all this enthusiasm every place I went as a commander,” Peterson said. “I was telling everybody come to the fair, wear these (yellow Walk for Veterans) shirts, we are going to do an awareness walk with The American Legion Family.”

The enthusiasm carried over into Monday’s walk – it marked the first time the Iowa Legion Family congregated together as a large group to walk in the parade instead of being separated by posts. The impact the group – highly visible in their bright yellow Walk for Veterans T-shirts – had on parade viewers was loudly heard. “The large group of Legion family members marching together created the biggest response I’ve ever seen of applause and cheer from the crowd in all my years of participating in this parade,” said John Derner, Department of Iowa adjutant.

While some Legionnaires marched with their color guard or respective post, a selling point for the Iowa Legion Family members wanting to walk in a group was the presence of Barnett. He is the first national commander to ever participate in the Iowa State Fair Veterans Day Parade with the Department of Iowa.

“Bringing the national commander in for this has created a huge response. The Iowa veterans really appreciate everything he has done all year,” said Kathy Nees, Department of Iowa programs director.

Barnett felt the support and enthusiasm from the veterans and the crowd.

“The energy was fantastic here at the Iowa State Fair; the crowd was so veteran-friendly today,” Barnett said. “As we marched on we heard many of them thanking us for our service. It was just a joy to be here amidst people who really appreciate our veterans and appreciate what The American Legion does in their communities.”

When word reached Richland Post 504 member Tony Bond that the national commander was coming to his town, he decided to participate in the Veterans Day Parade for the first time and asked his family of four generations to join him.

“He asked us to walk, and we wanted to support him and all the veterans,” said Angela Bond, Tony’s daughter-in-law.

Other prominent Iowa Legionnaires leading the walk with Barnett included Department of Iowa Commander Ken Rochholz, National Executive Committeeman Bruce Feuerbach, National Marketing Commission Chairman Ken Danilson and Past National Commander Dave Rehbein.

Rehbein reiterated that the walk as a group was a “really good opportunity to showcase who we are; this is part of marketing ourselves. And having the national commander here draws more visibility.”

Following the parade, Barnett greeted fair attendees at the Department of Iowa’s booth located on the Grand Concourse, watched performances by the Iowa Military Veterans’ Band and the 34th Army Band, and visited the “Remembering Our Fallen” memorial that pays tribute to Iowa’s military servicemembers who have died since 9/11.

Barnett is appreciative of the large turnout of Iowa Legion Family members who chose to support his Awareness Walks for Veterans initiative, which gets Legion members out of their post home and into their community to share who the Legion is and what it does for veterans.

“When people see The American Legion it tells people that we are still out here, we’re still doing what’s right for America, doing things to help veterans, to help our communities, to support the youth,” Barnett said.

“I want to thank every Legion Family member who participated in the walk and being proud of their service as a veteran or family member of a veteran. We need to understand that our freedoms are so precious, and we need to be a visible reminder to our community to do what we can to show forth the very best America has to offer. And that’s what the walks have done. I couldn’t be happier with the final results of the walks.”