Local Vets Honor Brown with Muster

WAITSBURG - Local veterans, family and friends gath­ered to honor Jared Brown in a muster ceremony at the Feb. 18 Commercial Club meeting. Brown is a 2013 Waitsburg graduate and son to April and Frank Gould. The send-off was a departure celebration for the Army enlistee who is leaving for Boot Camp Feb. 24.

Brown will be training for Wheeled Vehicle Training with the US Army Airborne in Ft. Jackson, South Carolina. After nine weeks of Basic training Brown will transfer to Ft. Lee in Virginia for Advanced Individual Training (AIT) for 12 weeks before heading to Ft. Benning in Georgia for two weeks of Jump School Training.

American Legion Post #35 Commander Ron Standring introduced Brown and invited all veterans to join them at the front of the room. Nine local patriots stood alongside Brown as Standring offered "tips for surviving boot camp." Among them:

Boot Camp is only temporary. Your real service experiencewill not be like this.

Always keep your cool.

Study hard.

Your drill sergeant is just doing his job - it's nothing per­sonal. Make lots of friends.

Write home often.

Have fun.

Auxiliary President Rose Engelbrite shared about the his­tory of mustering. According to Merriam-Webster a muster is "a formal military gathering to examine or test soldiers." Engelbrite credited Andrew Jackson with initiating the mus­ter ceremony, which she said continued into World War II. It eventually fell away in popularity, except in the south. Day­ton, Wash. has recently revived the tradition and Waitsburg is following suit. Brown's is the second Waitsburg muster in recent years. Ryan Mason, son of Gerald and Kathy Mason was mustered in the spring of 2012.

Engelbrite presented Brown with a pocket flag on behalf of the Legion. She then announced that Brown's stepfather, OR Army National Guardsman Frank Gould, had just re­ceived notice that he has been called to active duty in prepa­ration for deployment to Afghanistan. Gould was previously deployed to Afghanistan in 2009-10. In recognition of hav­ing two family members in active service, April Gould was awarded a two-star banner.