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By RANDY ERICKSON | Editor
The Air Force gave Craig Bartos a chance to become a doctor. His service in the military also enhanced his sense of appreciation and awe for those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for their country.
Now retired from the Naval Reserves, where he rose to the rank of captain, Bartos was asked to give the main address at Onalaska’s Memorial Day ceremony Monday. He’s been a regular fixture there for the better part of a decade as first his oldest daughter, Karen, and now his other two childen, Laura and John, have performed with the Onalaska High School band during the Memorial Day observations.
A family practice physician at Franciscan Skemp in La Crosse, Bartos hasn’t had much practice at public speaking, but he wasn’t going to let that prevent him from paying tribute to soldiers who gave their lives for their country. If he can give his listeners the feeling he got one day during his 10-year stint in the Air Force, then he can call his speech a success.
Bartos started his Air Force service in 1982 at Scott Air Force Base in St. Louis, moving on to a base in California before being assigned to Eielson Air Force Base, a frigid outpost near Fairbanks. He lived with his family in a town called North Pole, where his first Christmas pictures of daughter Laura were taken.
During his Alaska duty, he spent nearly three weeks on Shemya, a tiny island at the end of the Aleutian chain that stretches out from the Alaska mainland toward Russia. The Aleutians also were the United States’ closest approach to Japan, and during World War II they were particularly vulnerable to Japanese occupation. In fact, he said, the Japanese did control some of the islands for a time.
One day during his time on Shemya, he had some free time to explore, so he headed out with his camera for a look around. On one shoreline, he found a bunker, still standing from World War II. Standing there contemplating the bunker, he heard an airplane approaching and imagined what might have gone through the mind of a young soldier sitting in that bunker, hearing a plane engine grow nearer and nearer.
It gave Bartos goosebumps then, and it still does.
He was similarly inspired during a visit to Dubna, Russia, that coincided with the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe — VE Day. While the milestone barely made a blip in the United States, in Dubna there was a big celebration that drew at least half the town.
“They had celebrations all over the country. Red Square was just lit up,” said Bartos, whose father, John, served in the Navy in the South Pacific during World War II. “It was a very moving experience to be there.”
Likewise, if Bartos’ Memorial Day speech can give listeners the feeling he got when he traveled with the Onalaska High School band to Washington, D.C., he will have accomplished his mission.
Back in 2006, Bartos accompanied the Hilltoppers for their appearance in Washington’s Independence Day parade, an elite assembly in which few high schools ever get a chance to take part.
The day before the Fourth of July festivities, Bartos got a chance to take part in another goosebump-making moment: He laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington National Cemetery.
Bartos also got a good feeling that the youths he was chaperoning “get it.” During their travels around Washington, their comments told Bartos that they appreciate all the sacrifices that secured their freedoms and had a sense of wonder about the history on display in the nation’s capital.
It’s important for people to mark Memorial Day as more than just a free day from work or school, Bartos said, “to recall that the sacrifices that have been made by generations past had a meaning and a purpose that goes beyond their own generation, beyond their own circumstance.”
It’s also important for people to remember, he said, “that the very important things that we take for granted did not come easily and were not handed to us just because we were born in the United States. And some people out there would take away those freedoms.”
Contact Randy Erickson at randy.erickson@lee.net or 786-6812.
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