Coming up on Saturday and Sunday will be the annual Lest We Forget program in St. Joseph to honor U.S. military history and veterans.
The events this year focus on the wars in the Persian Gulf, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Titled “The Sandbox Wars,” the presentations will not feature the traditional reenactments. Rather, Lest We Forget’s Larry Wozniak tells us they’ll be more informational.
“Mostly through displays this year,” Wozniak said. “There aren’t any reenactors that do things like this yet. Maybe there will be in the future, but we’re doing through displays through the gold star walls, for boats, giving rides in the river, through a hands-on museum, a climbing wall, all those kinds of things that we’ll have be available there.”
They will have some guest speakers, including Shoshana Johnson, who was held as a POW in the Iraq war. She’ll speak at 1 p.m. both on Saturday and on Sunday. They’ll also have the visiting Gold Star Wall, which honors those lost in the Sandbox Wars.
“It’s about 75 feet long, eight feet high. It’s an outdoor display. It has gold stars on it. Each gold star has a name of a soldier who died during those events.”
Wozniak says they’ll also have helicopter rides, landing craft rides, and USO shows.
The events will all be held at 275 Upton Drive, which is right along the St. Joseph River. Everything will kick off each day with a pancake breakfast at 7 a.m. Events on Saturday will run from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. On Sunday, they’ll run from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.