Veterans from across DeSoto County were honored Friday morning, Nov. 6, at the 14th annual Horn Lake veterans breakfast. Keynote speaker Lt. Col. Arthur L. McLaurin Jr. told the crowd that the freedoms Americans enjoy “do not come without a cost.”
The Annie Ruth and Winn Brown Veterans Breakfast was held at the Agri-Education Center. The City of Horn Lake has organized it every year since 2012, the DeSoto Times-Tribune reported.
Keynote speaker: courage is “will-to-action”
McLaurin is the Director of Resource Management for the Camp Shelby Joint Forces Training Center, among other roles. He said veterans’ assignments, experiences and uniforms differ, but they share a willingness to put something greater than themselves first. “They are ordinary citizens who answered an extraordinary call,” he said.
He described courage as the will to act in the face of fear. He called it the force that holds units together and gives the oath of service its meaning. He also quoted George Washington’s words before the Battle of Long Island about the fate of “unborn millions.” Those words still apply nearly 250 years later, he said, because defending freedom matters for the generations who will inherit it.
Mayor Jimmy Stokes presented McLaurin with an award after his speech.
Who the Horn Lake veterans breakfast is named for
The breakfast honors two of Horn Lake’s best-known residents:
Winn Brown was Horn Lake’s first mayor after the city incorporated in 1973. He helped start the Horn Lake Fire Department and served in the European Theater in World War II, where he rose to sergeant.
Annie Ruth Brown founded the Historic DeSoto Foundation, the group behind the DeSoto County Museum. She also worked for many years as a substitute teacher in DeSoto County Schools.
Both died in 2015.
Veterans and organizers share their stories
AJ Linville, Horn Lake’s HR director and the breakfast organizer, said the event is personal for her. Her grandfather was a B-24 tail gunner in Europe during World War II. He flew 20 combat missions and was shot down twice, she said.
Stokes said the breakfast reminds the community to care for every veteran in the county. He talked about uncles who served in the Navy and said his father taught him about service, which he tries to carry into his job as mayor.
Vietnam veteran Robert Spears served in Vietnam from November 1969 to November 1970. He said the breakfast is the honor he never received when he came home. Spears has attended for the past six years and called it “the highest honor in the world.”
Calvin Freeman is an 18-year Army veteran and adjutant of American Legion Post 134. He said the morning is a time for “reflection and unity” and for remembering what military families go through during deployments. He said the American Legion gives veterans “a place to come.”
More Veterans Day events in DeSoto County
Southaven holds its Veterans Day luncheon on Wednesday, Nov. 11, and Olive Branch holds its luncheon on Thursday, Nov. 12. DeSoto County government offices will be closed on Nov. 11 for Veterans Day.
