Griff Ratterree was until very recently one of our "lost" shipmates. We had not been able to get in contact with him. The local on-line newspaper where he lives ran the story below. The writer of the story, Elizabeth Larson, discovered that we were looking for Griff. Ms. Larson has put us in contact with him. Our thanks go to Ms. Larson.
This article and photograph reproduced with permission of Elizabeth Larson and the Lake County News
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Vet Connect, Ratterree honored during annual Veterans Day ceremony
Written by Elizabeth Larson
Saturday, 12 November 2011
From left, United Veterans Council President Frank Parker, who received the
Friend of the Veteran Award on behalf of Lake County Vet Connect, and Griff
Ratterree, who received the Veteran of the Year Award at the Lake County
Veterans Day ceremony at Konocti Vista Casino in Lakeport, Calif., on Friday,
November 11, 2011. Photo by Elizabeth Larson.
LAKEPORT, Calif. – Despite the rain, hundreds of people turned out on Friday
morning to mark Veterans Day and show their gratitude to the men and women who
have donned the uniform in service to the nation.
The annual Lake County Veterans Day ceremony returned to Konocti Vista Casino in
Lakeport, where community members packed the showroom.
Receiving special honors this year was Lake County Vet Connect, formed earlier
this year to help veterans get a “hand up, not a hand out” with everything from
medical care to housing assistance. The group received this year’s “Friend of
the Veteran” award.
Griff Ratterree, past commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 2015 in
Lakeport and a member of the United Veterans Council’s Military Funeral Honors
Team, was honored with the “Veteran of the Year Award.”
“First time in my life I’ve been speechless,” Ratterree said after being handed
the award by United Veterans Council President Frank Parker.
The turnout appeared to be even larger than last year. Parker noted that he
could remember the first ceremony held in front of the Veterans Service Office
in downtown Lakeport many years ago, when only a handful of people showed up.
Young McKenna Rose Enger sang the national anthem to start off the event, and
Supervisor Jim Comstock, a Vietnam Navy veteran, noted that it was for people
like her that veterans serve.
“It’s about America – what we love and defend fiercely,” he said.
Comstock read a letter from Congressman Mike Thompson, another Vietnam veteran,
who thanked the county’s veterans for their service both in wars and in
peacetime.
The day’s featured speaker was Ginny Craven, founder of Operation Tango Mike,
which sends care packages to soldiers overseas. Craven is a previous Friend of
the Veteran Award winner.
The daughter of a World War II veteran who died when she was still in high
school, Craven described growing up in Lake County and meeting veterans whose
service she knew nothing about until years later.
She said those men she met didn’t speak about their service; neither did her
father. “Many vets don’t.”
While he may not have spoken about it, her father’s service was evidenced in
other ways, including how shrapnel oozed from his body until the day he died.
In describing veterans, she quoted G.K. Chesterton, who wrote, “Courage is
almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the
form of a readiness to die.”
Craven received a standing ovation from the crowd.
In presenting the Friend of the Veteran Award to Vet Connect, Comstock said the
group’s goal is to make sure veterans in need aren’t forgotten.
Parker, who helped form the group and accepted the award on its behalf, said Vet
Connect will mark its one-year anniversary this coming Jan. 6. Ten weeks after
it formed, it began serving veterans, he said.
“We are vets helping vets,” he explained. “We are a hand up, not a hand out.”
Parker, in turn, presented the award to Ratterree, saying, “This is one award
that is long overdue.”
Ratterree said of his award, “I feel it’s an honor to be a vet in this great
nation.”
The Military Funeral Honors Team, which has given honors at the funerals of more
than 800 veterans, helped close the ceremony with a rifle volley, followed by
the playing of “Taps.”
