Hundreds honor veterans in Rehoboth Beach
More than 100 people attended the VFW Post 7447’s annual Veterans Day ceremony Nov. 11 at the Rehoboth Beach Bandstand.
Dave Diefenderfer, VFW Post 7447 commander and active member of the Navy, emceed the event. Every American benefits from the service of veterans, said Deifenderfer.
The keynote speaker was Navy Capt. Tres Meek, a friend of Deifenderfer, who traveled from Norfolk, Va., to attend the event. He’s a third-generation Navy man who is in the final week of an active-duty career that’s spanned 28 years, he said.
It’s been an honor representing this country’s values all over the world, said Meek.
He said it’s important to keep having events like this, so history can be shared and veterans not forgotten. Additionally, he said, there needs to be an engagement with youngsters so they have the desire to join the armed services.
Meek also thanked spouses and children of veterans.
He said he has two boys, 18 and 20, and it’s been an eye-opening experience reading their college essays. They write about getting to see the world and learn about new cultures, but there’s also the hard part about having to move all the time, finding new friends and being without their dad for long stretches of time.
“It can be heart wrenching,” said Meek.
Chris Flood has been working for the Cape Gazette since early 2014. He currently covers Rehoboth Beach and Henlopen Acres, but has also covered Dewey Beach and the state government. He covers environmental stories, business stories and random stories on subjects he finds interesting, and he also writes a column called Choppin’ Wood that runs every other week. Additionally, Flood moonlights as the company’s circulation manager, which primarily means fixing boxes that are jammed with coins during daylight hours, but sometimes means delivering papers in the middle of the night. He’s a graduate of the University of Maine and the Landing School of Boat Building & Design.
