American Legion to host Fourth of July rally

Nevada, Mo. -- The Fourth of July has always been a holiday dedicated to patriotic celebrations and this year Ron Brown would like to have a portion of that day dedicated to a show of support of American troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Brown said that it has been five years since the Nevada American Legion held a rally to send area soldiers off to the Middle East. Since then, they have urged everyone to wear red on Fridays to show their support of American troops.

This year Brown said that the Missouri State Veterans of Underage Military Service, of which Brown is commander, and the American Legion Leon Ogier Post Post No. 2, commanded by Gene Webb, are sponsoring the Wear Red on Friday/Supporting our Troops Rally on the Fourth of July in Nevada.

Brown said that this will be a family event and is looking for vendors and people with rides for kids.

"AMVETS has donated the use of their land for the rally" Brown said, adding that the VFW is also helping to put on the rally.

Brown is hoping to attract a large crowd for the event, not only from the Nevada and Fort Scott area, but from other areas as well.

Brown said that "if we can get a large group of people in Nevada, Mo. showing their support for the troops that will show how much America really supports them."

If the rally grows into the thousands as Brown hopes, he thinks they will not only get local attention, but national attention as well. He said that although the rally is to take place at AMVETS, there will be no alcohol at the rally, which will be kept separate.

"There has been a lot of support from the local merchants and there is more and more each day," Brown said.

"This is 100 percent for the kids serving there now," he said.

"In the next 30 days I'll have this planned," he said.

Brown said to raise money to pay for this rally, the American Legion and the Underage Veterans will have a booth at Bushwhacker Days, where they plan to sell "I Wear Red Every Friday" buttons.

He said that he has had 400 buttons made so far. Money from these buttons will go for the rally and any extra money will go to other veterans groups.

"I'm not in this to make any money for myself," he said.

He said that when the war in Iraq started, there was a lot of public support for the troops, but that has declined over time.

"I think we've lost the word 'patriotism' in America in the last five years," he said.

Brown said that the idea for this rally came from an incident that occurred when he was in Branson.

He was talking to a retired colonel at a meeting about the Vietnam War when a young Marine, who had just come back from Iraq, came over to talk to them. The Marine had overheard them talking and wanted to talk to them about his experiences.

"I'm about to go crazy. We had to kill people; old people, young people," Brown said the Marine told him.

Brown said the Marine, who broke down while talking to them, said that it was bothering him and he wanted to know how these veterans dealt with that during the Vietnam war.

"They don't believe the country is supporting them enough," Brown said.

"People don't realize the trauma troops go through in war," Brown who volunteered for the military and served two tours in Vietnam, said.