Veterans group from Troy visits MNVM

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Tuesday morning, a group of 20-plus veterans from the Troy area visited the Missouri National Veterans Memorial.
After stopping at the visitor’s center and seeing the memorial wall, Overcomers International Church at the Perryville Plaza hosted the group for lunch. The official songs of each branch of the service were played, the national anthem was sung and the pledge of allegiance recited prior to the serving of the lunch.
Roger Kiesey was one of the trip organizers. He is in charge of Veterans Coffee Talk based in Troy.
“We’ve taken a few trips before and we have large groups,” Kiesey said. “We’re taken them to College of the Ozarks, they built a memorial for veterans and we took a tour bus down there, we’ve been talking about doing something and they felt this would be good to do.”
Getting the opportunity to travel to the MNVM in Perry County was a big moment for the group, according to Kiesey.

“It’s special for all of them,” Kiesey said. “A lot of people died, people you know and when you think back on it, you did what you were told, and you realized over the years, when you get some wisdom that most wars are unnecessary. Politicians start them and send young people to fight them. That’s just stupid. Most things can be solved other ways. This here, it’s something that happened, we were a part of it, so we want to not only acknowledge it but honor those who made the sacrifices, that’s part of what this is.”
Kiesey served in the U.S. Navy from 1966-70 during the “height” of the Vietnam War.
It was a memorable trip, according to Kiesey.
“This was a great day,” Kiesey said.
Kiesey is friends with Mark Ward, father of Kent Ward, the pastor at Overcomers International.
“It’s great, the museum and everything,” said James Forbeck of Old Monroe. “It’s very impressive.” He said it reminded him of a military museum he has visited in O’Fallon. Both were very informative. “You can spend hours in these museums,” he said.