HURON — Before she answered the call to serve her Lord, Pastor Joanne Nagele of Huron made the decision to join the Navy.
It was the 1970s, the war was raging in Vietnam and the streets back home were often filled with protestors.
A recruiter she talked with told her they needed women to fill openings left by men who were working on the ships.
“When I decided to do that, it was very unpopular to be a member of the military,” Nagele said in her address at Huron’s Memorial Day on Monday.
“But I was troubled with young men my age who were drafted,” she said.
Nagele offered her words of gratitude to all the men and women who have served their country in the military, all of those who are on active duty today and the families and friends left behind who desperately need comforting because of the loss of their relatives.
“We come to give thanks to God for all of those who have shown their greatest love by laying down their lives for others,” Nagele said.
Since the country was founded, every generation has had to face the prospect of sending men and women off to war.
“We find ourselves working to come together to do whatever we feel is important to help make this world a better place,” Nagele said. “I believe our God is gracious and gives us the wherewithal and the creativity to deal with it.”
She approached a recruiter to find out how she could help, or to at least find out if she was eligible to serve.
She vividly remembers her first day in boot camp in Maryland, after her first plane ride. The night before, she had gazed up into a clear Minnesota sky in late November and spotted her favorite constellation, Orion.
Reveille was at 4 in the morning, “or some awful time,” she said.
But rising at that hour, she looked up into the Maryland sky and was comforted to see that Orion was still there, just in a different location.
Alone and on her own, she had to adjust to barracks life and the fact that she must abide by the Uniform Code of Military Justice, a book she had been expected to memorize before her arrival at boot camp.

“And keeping things nice and neat in a small tiny space was a challenge for all of us,” Nagele said.
There were rules to follow, organizational skills to develop.
“You were expected to hop to it with clean, ironed uniforms,” she said.
At first, she prayed to God to send her “a heavenly helicopter” to whisk her away to some place safe. But she said she soon became more realistic about her situation, and asked God instead to help her make it through each day.
“One of the first things that our leader stressed was that we came in as a company and the only way we were going to get out of it was as a company,” Nagele said.
She shared living space with women from all over the United States, with different backgrounds, from different walks of life.
“You might imagine how crazy cloistered young women not studying to be Roman Catholic nuns can be at the sight of a man,” she said.
“The people in charge, they knew they needed a way to keep us going and acting military,” she said. “They said, ‘you have to think of men, whenever you see them, think of them as trees. T-R-E-E-S. Those things that blow in the wind.’
“And boy, did we develop an interest in trees,” Nagele joked.
The G.I. Bill helped her finish college and go on to the seminary. She has made use of her military experiences and knowledge in her life and as a pastor.
“But also it has helped me to stand up to do what I know that needs to be done despite knowing that I might be punished or criticized for doing it,” she said.
When she became a pastor, Nagele said she didn’t ask God this time to send a helicopter to get her out of her latest situation.
“But I asked God to give me insight and wisdom to help me through whatever was happening,” she said. “I have often used the phrase, if I can make it through this, I can make it through anything.”
Those who served like she did during the Vietnam era had very difficult homecomings.
They had faced the tragedies of the death of fellow soldiers and friends.
Then they came home to protests.
 “Most of us just have no clue of what you faced,” she said. “Thank you.”
Many men and women have served in the years since she did, answering that same call from their country.
Nagele thanked them for their part in ensuring the freedoms that Americans enjoy every day, not just on Memorial Day.
As Beadle and Sanborn Veterans Service Officer said in closing, “Freedom is not free.”  


PHOTOS BY ROGER LARSEN/PLAINSMAN
Shown reciting the Pledge of Allegiance after the colors were posted are, from left, Gene McMillan, Keith McMillan, Pastor Joanne Nagele, Howard Alter and Taylor Jans, as the Memorial Day program begins Monday at Huron High School.

Next, Pastor Nagele delivers the Memorial Day address.

Next, members of Boy Scout Troop 151 helped lay wreaths.

And next, Gene McMillan plays taps at the conclusion.