The Globe Gazette
Mason City, Cerro Gordo County, Iowa
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
by John Skipper

MASON CITY — Air Force veteran William STUFLICK of Clear Lake urged fellow veterans Tuesday never to forget "the greater purpose” they learned while serving in the military.

STUFLICK, whose 14 years in the service included duty in Iraq, was the main speaker at the Mason City Veterans Day activities at the VFW post home.

"In the military, most of us are more concerned about the person on our left or right than about ourselves," he said.

"Why do we forget those core values when we're out of the service?" he asked.

STUFLICK is now a specialist with the Disabled Veteran Outreach Program and is a disability navigator for the Iowa Workforce Development Center in Mason City.

He invoked the words of Shakespeare, saying, "How far that little candle throws its beams. So shines a good deed in a weary world."

He then asked the veterans to "be that light shining good deeds on your fellow brothers and sisters."

The day's activities started in Central Park where, in a driving rain, 80 new names on the Veterans Monument were dedicated while about 30 onlookers watched. As that ceremony ended and the group headed off to the VFW post, one old veteran wiped the rain from his face and said to a companion, "You know, it was worse in 1940," referring to the historic Midwest blizzard on Nov. 11, 1940.

Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, May of 2011