Memorial Day
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Flandreau native and retired Lt. Col. Aaron Schultz will deliver the Memorial Day message Monday at Union Cemetery.
Schultz, who enlisted in high school before graduating from Flandreau in 1987, has been called up three times for active duty overseas. He served as a truck driver with the 1742nd Transportation Company of the South Dakota Army National Guard when the Flandreau unit served six months during Operation Desert Storm in 1990-1991. He also served from 2010-2011 in Afghanistan as part of Operation Enduring Freedom, and his unit was activated in 2003 for Operation Iraqi Freedom. But 24 hours before they were scheduled to leave, they were ordered to return to normal duty.
His first awareness of Memorial Day was putting flags on the graves when he was a boy and helping his dad Russell, a Korean War veteran.
“I have a lot of fond memories with Memorial Day,” he said. “When I was a kid, he would drag me out to the cemetery, and we’d put all the flags out there.”
Later, Schultz worked for the city mowing the cemetery.
This year’s ceremony will begin at 11 a.m. and will include music by the Flandreau High School band. In case of rain, the event will be moved to the William J. Janklow Community Center, where there will be a potluck following the service.
Following his deployment during Operation Desert Storm, Schultz graduated from Southwest Minnesota State University in Marshall, Minn., with a bachelor’s of science degree in 1992. He became a commissioned officer in 1994 and earned his master’s in Business Administration from the University of Sioux Falls in 2009.