MUSCATINE, Iowa — A large, green machine greeted shoppers who drove into the parking lot of Muscatine’s Hy-Vee Food Store on Veterans Day morning.

National Guard recruiter Sgt. Matthew Eaton said the vehicle’s purpose is to move any kind of heavy equipment.

Eaton has been deployed overseas twice during his nine years of Guard service. The first time was in 2003 to the Sinai Peninsula. The second time was in 2005 to Ramadi, Iraq.

“Every Veterans Day has meaning for me,” Eaton said Wednesday. “Veterans have done a lot for the country and need to be honored.”

Eaton was joined by about 350 veterans for a free  breakfast at Hy-Vee. And for every veteran, there’s a story to be told.

From medic to fire chief

Muscatine Fire Chief Jerry Ewers served as an Airborne Medic in the Army from 1984-87.

“The three years in the military was a good experience,” Ewers says, adding that it opened doors to his civilian career when he saw a newspaper ad for a firefighter with medical experience. Ewers says he grew up and matured in the military and has remained in contact with an Army buddy, Jim Northcutt, who now serves as a firefighter in Miami.

Military service runs in the Ewers family. Chief Ewers says his brother, Chris, served 11 years as an Army medic — including a tour in Iraq — and had just started working in the civilian world when he was reactivated to serve in Iraq for one more year.

Freedom’s fighters

Former Muscatine City Councilman Jerry Root made Chief Petty Officer in the Navy Reserve about a year and a half ago. He served six years of active duty submarine service along the East Coast from 1974-80.

Root said Veterans Day is meaningful to him because “we get to honor all the ones who went before us who gave us the freedoms we now have.”

Remembering buddies

Bob Barkema of Muscatine was drafted into the Army in 1965 and served one year in Vietnam during 1966-67, during which time he earned a Purple Heart.

Barkema is retired from Alliant Energy, where he says he always took the day off for Veterans Day.

“I just remember all my buddies,” he said Wednesday.

Barkema’s plans included a trip to Kimballton in western Iowa for an Amvets celebration of Veteran’s Day Wednesday night.

Wounded warrior

Overseas duty for Elvin Paetz of Muscatine was cut short when he was wounded in action twice. Paetz was in Korea in 1952.

“I took a bullet through my knee and artillery fire on the way back,” he said.

A  relative remembers

World War II Navy Veteran Lloyd Whitlow is a lifelong resident of Muscatine.

Whitlow enlisted in the fall of 1944 at age 17. His active duty began the following April with boot camp at Great Lakes. After six days of leave, he reported to San Diego, boarded a ship, and “over we went” to duty in the Pacific. He adds “We were tickled” when news arrived in August of Japan’s surrender.

Whitlow served 18 months in the Philippines and never saw combat. But his family new the sting of loss. “I lost my brother-in-law on Okinawa,” Whitlow says. “He was young.”

Whitlow retired 20 years ago last June after serving as Muscatine’s street maintenance supervisor for 13 years.

Celebration of service

Al Sywassink of Muscatine turned 90 last June. The World War II veteran volunteered in February of 1941 for a one-year stint in the Army. But after the Pearl Harbor attack in December of that year, Sywassink found himself in for the duration — to the fall of 1945, with his service split “about fifty-fifty” between stateside and the Pacific.

Veterans Day is an opportunity to “celebrate all the people who have served,” he said Wednesday.

Hy-Vee store director Jeff Canfield was pleased to host Wednesday’s free breakfast. “It’s just a small way of saying ‘thank you’ to our veterans,” he said.