Monday, August 17, 2015

Vietnam Veteran Honored With Native American Tradition

Seneca veteran honored for service in Vietnam
‘I will treasure this day for the rest of my life’
Buffalo News
By Harold McNeil
News Staff Reporter
August 17, 2015
Years after his discharge from the Army in 1970, the stress of those experiences caught up to him, requiring treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder.
Lloyd Kettle, center, an Army veteran of the Vietnam War, holds the eagle feather he was presented with Sunday by Iroquois Post 1587 members Cmdr. Bud Thompson, left, and Markey Jimerson, right, as the Erie County Fair in Hamburg celebrated Veterans Day.
John Hickey/Buffalo News

Lloyd M. Kettle accepted his eagle feather with pride Sunday, as the steady rhythm of Native American drums beat softly in the background.

It was among the highest of honors for the Vietnam veteran, 45 years after completing his military service, and played out for hundreds who gathered to watch the solemn ceremony on the Turtle Mound at the Erie County Fairgrounds.

“It’s a fantastic honor. I will treasure this day for the rest of my life,” Kettle said afterward.

The honor bestowed upon him Sunday is steeped in Native American tradition, even though the particular ceremony in which he took part goes back only four years, according to Markey Jimerson of American Legion Iroquois Post 1587 on the Cattaraugus Reservation.

“We had a guy, Melvin Joe Curry – he had the history of the Seneca Nation and the Iroquois Confederacy. He passed on about four years ago, and we’re trying to carry it on from there,” Jimerson said.
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