The Geary County Veterans Alliance put on the annual Veterans Day Program Wednesday morning at the C.L. Hoover Opera House.

This year keynote speaker was Mary T. Burnham, of Junction City. Burnham is a retired US Army Nurse who served in the Army Nurse Corps. During her time in the Nurse Corps she served at Ft. Sam Houston, Texas, Ft. Hood, Texas, and Tripler Army Medical Center in Hawaii.

“Towards the end of my year in Hawaii I received orders for Fort Riley, Kansas,” Burnham said which drew laughter from the crowd. “I really was. I wanted to go to Vietnam. I was there, I knew people that were already over there so I wrote a letter to Washington, wrote several letters, but the replies were always the same, they needed someone with my MOS at Fort Riley, Kansas.”

She said during her time at Fort Riley she cared for active duty soldiers and their dependants. She was up for promotion to become a Major but traded being on the Majors list for a “Mrs.”; resigning her commission to remain in Junction City and to marry her husband Tom.

Following her speech Burnham was presented with a Quilt of Valor from the Central Flint Hills Quilt of Valor Project.

Donna Martinson, Quilt of Valor Project Coordinator explained,”Mary’s Quilt of Valor is the 116th quilt awarded through the Central Flint Hills Area Quilt of Valor 2015 Project.”

A photo montage put together by Bobby Whitten was then played showing 108 of the quilts that had been presented this year. A number of the quilts were also on display at the Opera House.