Helping veterans honors their service, volunteers say

Intermountain Catholic

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BOUNTIFUL — As Veteran’s Day approaches, Americans are preparing to honor members of all branches of the country’s military who served in wars or armed conflicts. While the nation sets aside one day for this observance, some Utah Knights of Columbus members put their faith into action by serving veterans in the community throughout the year. Among them is Raymond A. Salazar, Deputy Grand Knight of Council 5502 at Saint Olaf Parish in Bountiful.

Salazar, a former district deputy of the Utah Knights of Columbus, comes from a family with a long history of service in various branches of the military. “The only branch that we haven’t covered is the Marine Corps,” he said.

“I have veterans in both sides of my family that served,” he said. “My dad’s dad was a WWI Doughboy, I have family members who served in WWII, my dad was a Korean War vet and I was considered a Vietnam air vet,” as well as an aunt and two uncles who served in uniform.

When Salazar retired as an Air Force civilian employee, he took a break, he said, but a little over seven years ago his council went to the George E. Wahlen Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Salt Lake City to pass out gift bags, which led him to volunteer in the transport office there.

“It is something that brings me great pleasure and comfort … to give back to my brothers and sisters,” he said.

As a volunteer he has interacted with veterans who served in a number of armed conflicts, including WWII, the Korean War, Vietnam and Desert Storm, among others.

One of his most vivid memories is when he went to the emergency room to transport a veteran. He asked the man if he wanted a wheelchair, “And he said to me, ‘The last time I was in a wheelchair they were wheeling me out of Afghanistan, and I swore I was never going to get in another one,’ so we walked to his clinic together instead,” Salazar said.

Volunteering for the past seven years has “just been an incredible experience,” he said. “People don’t realize that sometimes the veterans, a lot of them get the short end of the stick. … There are a lot of homeless veterans out there that shouldn’t be … but the veterans that I see are getting the help that they need, which is very important.”

Americans have a debt to “the men and women who fought for us, a debt that this country will never be able to pay back,” he said, adding that every veteran takes an oath to serve the country, “and sometimes people don’t understand all what a veteran gives up. The emotional and physical injuries that some people come back home with are not the type of injuries that you can heal up over time, and I think a lot of the times people don’t think about it because they don’t see it every day,” but this is what keeps him going back three days a week to the VA hospital, he said.

Volunteering alongside Salazar at the VA is fellow Council 5502 member Joseph A. Nesi, who is this year’s Utah Knight of the Year. In his almost 45 years with the fraternal Catholic organization, he has filled key roles at the council, assembly and state levels. Nesi was never in the military, but “I enjoy serving the veterans who fought to keep my country safe and keep my family safe,” he said. “It’s kind of paying it forward.”

In addition to his weekly volunteering, Nesi also helps the Knights provide a meal every quarter at the Fisher House, which is a facility in Salt Lake City for families to stay while their veteran receives medical treatment.  

His Catholic faith has helped Nesi be available to the veterans, he said. “I live by this motto: ‘If you cannot take care of those whom you can see, how can you love a God that you can’t see?’ … It is time that we start to show our humanity to one another. We as human beings are loving individuals, and it is time to forget the things from the past that are gone.”

In May, Pope Francis released  a message to mark the 64th International Military Pilgrimage to Lourdes that urged all service members to be “military men and women who stand tall and proud to honour your uniform, your motto and your homeland, but who are also aware that you are part of a single human family, a family that is divided and wounded, but which Christ came to redeem and save through the power of love, not the violence of arms. … The world needs you, especially at this dark moment in our history. We need men and women of faith who are capable of putting weapons at the service of peace and brotherhood.”