Lest We Forget is gearing up for its annual reenactment weekend, scheduled for June 21 and 22, and there will be a bit of a difference in the program this year.

The group’s Larry Wozniak tells us the focus for 2025 is on America’s various wars in the desert, titled The Sandbox Wars. They’ll be talking about Desert Storm, Iraqi Freedom, and the Afghanistan war. However, it’s unlikely there will be any battle reenactments this time around.

“We were looking for some reenactors, but there aren’t any,” Wozniak said. “The guys who are involved in these wars aren’t doing anything, and the other people are more interested in World War II and those kind of things, Korea. There’s a little bit of Vietnam reenactment out there, but nothing for this. So we had to find another way to teach the people about the era.”

That’s why Lest We Forget is planning to host a speaker series featuring local veterans leading up to the June event. The first speaker engagement will be April 15.

“We’ve got a lot of people in our area who served during those times, and we wanted to give them a chance to tell their story. So we’re starting with Desert Storm, and Lee Scherwitz, who was the airport manager for 15 years and in the Air Force for 26 years.”

Senior Master Sergeant Scherwitz will talk about Air Force operations in Desert Storm. Subsequent engagements will focus on Iraqi Freedom and Afghanistan, on April 22 and April 29 on into May. All engagements will be at Lake Michigan College at 7 p.m.

Wozniak says the Lest We Forget main program, on June 21 and 22, will feature a Gold Star Tribute Wall for those who died in the Sandbox Wars. It’ll be stationed on the banks of the St. Joseph River off Upton Drive in St. Joseph. Iraq War POW Shoshana Johnson will be the guest speaker.

Below is a schedule for the speaker series leading into June.