Poe: 'Lean in' to ensure officials do right by vets

American Legion Post 90 hosts annual observance

During the annual community Veterans Day Observance at the Averitt Center for the Arts on Friday, keynote speaker Don Poe, right, stands beside a recreated illustration based on surveillance video and tells the story of U.S. Marines Jonathan Yale and Jordan Haerter, who died when a truck exploded in a suicide attack at a checkpoint in Iraq in 2008. The soldiers stayed at their posts, firing at the truck until it stopped, saving 150 of their fellow soldiers and Iraqi police. Poe's speech centered on how serving in the military creates a unique and strong family.

W 111116 VETERANS DAY 01 — During the annual community Veterans Day Observance at the Averitt Center for the Arts on Friday, keynote speaker Don Poe, right, stands beside a recreated illustration based on surveillance video and tells the story of U.S. Marines Jonathan Yale and Jordan Haerter, who died when a truck exploded in a suicide attack at a checkpoint in Iraq in 2008. The soldiers stayed at their posts, firing at the truck until it stopped, saving 150 of their fellow soldiers and Iraqi police. Poe's speech centered on how serving in the military creates a unique and strong family.

Veterans Day speaker Don Poe asked not just military veterans, but spouses, children and friends of veterans, indeed anyone proud of a veteran, to "lean in" and insist that elected officials make good on promises to veterans. At the observance hosted by American Legion Dexter Allen Post 90, Poe delivered an emotional retelling of a ranking general's tribute to two young Marines killed in their effort to stop an Iraqi insurgent in an explosive-laden truck. This year, the 11 a.m. observance downtown in the Averitt Center for the Arts' Emma Kelly Theater was one of two public Veterans Day ceremonies in Statesboro.

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