Families, comrades, country honor service of veterans

• By SANDY DAVIS
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Nov 12, 2009 - Page: 1A

• Print
• Email
• Save
• Reprints
• Twitter
• Share

• Del.icio.us
• Digg
• Facebook
• Reddit
• 

The massacre of 12 soldiers and a civilian at Fort Hood, Texas, last week was at the forefront of one of the Veterans Day celebrations Wednesday in Baton Rouge.

Keynote speaker state Sen. Sharon Weston Broome, D-Baton Rouge, asked the audience at the Odell S. Williams Now and Then African-American Museum to observe a moment of silence in memory of those killed and wounded at Fort Hood.

“It was a sacrifice that we never expected to happen on American soil,” she said.

Meanwhile, at the Old State Capitol, six veterans were inducted into the Louisiana Veterans Hall of Fame during the USS Kidd Veterans Memorial & Museum observance.

Among those inducted was Dr. Broox C. Garrett Jr., the only doctor on board the USS Kidd on April 11, 1945, when a kamikaze struck the destroyer, killing 38 men and wounding 55 — including Garrett.

After suturing himself, Garrett provided medical advice to a hospital corpsman as he treated wounded sailors.

Garrett, a Shreveport surgeon for more than 40 years, died in 1998.

His daughters, CoCo Garrett Paddison and Sou Garrett Sanders, accepted the honor on behalf of their father.

“Daddy loved the U.S. more than anything,” Sanders said shortly before the induction ceremony. “But he was humble and if he were here today, he would say he is no more special than anyone else who serves their country.”

As Sanders talked, she touched a bronze cast of her father’s dog tag on a bracelet she wore to the ceremony.

Maj. Gen. Bennett C. Landreneau, adjutant general of the Louisiana National Guard, was the keynote speaker at the induction ceremony; he honored the 11,000 soldiers and airmen who serve in the Guard.

He called the members of the Guard “diverse and unique” and said not only do they fight in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, but they also defend the U.S. border, fight wildfires and help during hurricanes.

“They are citizen soldiers who understand liberty and know what it is to be free,” he said.