Ronan honors Gold Star mothers
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RONAN — A small, quiet gathering in Bockman Park Sunday marked a little-known national day of remembrance for mothers of men and women killed in service in the United States military. In 1936, Congress dedicated the last Sunday in September as Gold Star Mother’s Day.
“It’s just about showing (Gold Star families) that there are people out here that think about them … we just want to let people know that we care,” organizer Bob Bell said of Sunday’s ceremony.
The simple observance took place at the Gold Star Mothers Memorial in Bockman Park. Built in 1994 as an Eagle Scout project, the memorial is one of only three in the United States as far as he knows, Bell said.
“This is the only gold star memorial in Montana,” he added.
Bell’s a member of a motorcycle group called STAR Touring and Riding that raised money in 2005 to mount a gold star atop the memorial, and for the past three years, he has organized a ceremony honoring Gold Star families, followed by a dinner at the Ronan VFW.
“I’ve attended ever since they started doing it,” Cathy Saltz said.
She was the first mother in Montana to lose a child in the Iraq War, and travels from her home near Bigfork to observe Gold Star Mother’s Day in Ronan. After Saltz’s son, Army 1st Lt. Edward M. Saltz of the 1st Armored Division, was killed in Baghdad, Iraq, in 2003, she became a sort of unofficial historian for Gold Star families in Montana.
“I know most of the stories,” she said.
Saltz was one of two Gold Star mothers at Sunday’s ceremony. Lisa Bohrnsen of Phillipsburg also makes the drive to Ronan each year, and both women said they enjoy the noon ceremony and dinner as a way for Gold Star mothers and families to check on each other and to meet new Gold Star families. Support from families who’ve been through similar losses means a lot, they said.
“It’s just nice to get together with people who are in the same circumstance as us … we all belong to a club we wish we had never been able to join,” Bohrnsen said.
“It was really a super nice afternoon to just visit and see how people are getting along,” Saltz added. “I just think a huge ‘Thank-you’ should go to the VFW in Ronan … they just make the day really special for us.”
