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March 31, 2016 - In honor of those who served for peace in Somolia, Commander Gene Hutto laid the memorial wreath during the VFW Post 8904 and Auxiliary observance on the courthouse grounds March 31, 2016.
Larry Hume said, "Well good morning, nice little crowd we have here, thank you for coming. It's a great day. You know Americans consider themselves to be a compassionate people, and the United States military has a long tradition of humanitarian relief operations both within and outside the continental United States. Never has this humanitarian impulse proven more dangerous to follow than in 1992 when the United States intervened to arrest famine in the midst of an ongoing civil war in the East African country of Somalia."
"Ultimately hundreds of thousands were saved from starvation, but unintended involvement in the Somalian civil strife cost the lives of thirty American Soldiers, four Marines, and eight Air Force personnel during the years of 1992 and 1994," continued Hume.
In elaboration of the Somalian aid Hume explained, "And the American Military has established the conditions for peace in the mist of a famine and civil war but unlike later in Bosnia the factions were not exhausted from the fighting and were not yet willing to stop killing each other or anyone else caught in the middle. There was no peace to keep and the United States withdrew all its military combat troops in March of 1994. The American GI had, as always, done there best under difficult circumstances to perform a complex and often confusing mission. But the best military in the world can only lay the foundation for peace, it cannot create peace itself."
As a final tribute, Bugler John Piersol played taps.
In closing, Hume thanked everyone for coming because without them this day would have went by unnoticed in Shelby County, Texas.
