Springfield South Dakota Veterans


"You may have served in combat or in non-combat.
You may have retired out or you may have served for a short time.
You may have been a draftee or a volunteer.
You may have served in the Corps, Army, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard, Merchant Marines or National Guard.,
BUT YOU SERVED. You did your job honorably, and for that I am proud to call you
BROTHER."
Author: Anonymous Veteran

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Springfield is full of Brothers in Arms. For too long their stories have been known only by their families and in some cases not even by their families. It is the goal of this web site to inform the Springfield Community of the military service of its citizens and to honor them for their sacrifices.   I am humbled by the experiences of the veterans I write about.  However, most of us had ordinary experiences during our service.  Does that mean our service wasn’t important?  In our system, the military is just one of the tools the civilian government has at its disposal in conducting foreign policy.  To be sure, it is a tool to be used as a last resort when the other nonmilitary tools fail.  The fact of the matter, though, is that, without taking any overt military action, if the military is kept in a ready, willing and effective condition, it is a tool whose presence has an effect on most foreign policy decisions.   All veterans contribute to producing a credible military that gives our foreign policy its legitimacy.  So, I agree with the anonymous veteran who wrote the above and say to all veterans that your service was of supreme importance to the country in giving our military its legitimacy and sustaining it as an invaluable and most effective tool of foreign policy.

Dick Martin

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This web page is a work in progress. It has been created through the donated efforts of Laura Genant Martin, Dick Martin, and Jim Hornstra. When Laura was made aware of what we needed, she took the initiative to research and educate herself on how to create a web site to identify, respect and honor the military veterans in Springfield. The web site had to be easy to navigate and had to provide the viewer a method of providing feedback. Most of the written material has been provided by Dick Martin over the past couple of years with some important contributions from others, i.e. Jim Kirk.  Jim Hornstra has been the reliable source as he has been the collector of information concerning Springfield Veterans and has provided Laura much of what has gone into the web site.