Crowd urged to remember sacrifices
A crowd of 250-300 attended Monday morning's Memorial Day program at Marion Cemetery.
The honor guard assembled at the Civil War Monument. The guard/firing squad was commanded by Dan Holub and comprised of fellow veterans Jim Davis, Greg Bowers, Rosse Case, Bill Holdeman, Bud Hannaford, Jack Swain, Marvin Rediker, Leland Heidebrecht, and Harold Conyers, and Army soldiers Steven Waner, Heather Holub, and Tamara Holub.
They fired the traditional three-round volley at the ceremony's end, in memory of departed comrades, followed by the sounding of "Taps."
A trumpet trio, Mike Connell, Nikki Moody, and Justin Brookens, played the National Anthem as well as "Taps."
Pastor Rick Branson delivered a short address as a tribute for Memorial Day and spoke a prayer.
Branson said the day was meant to "honor those who have given their lives in defense of the freedoms that we all enjoy."
He mentioned the battlefields of Bunker Hill, Yorktown, the Halls of Montezuma, Gettysburg, Shiloh, San Juan Hill, Normandy, Bastogne, Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima, Inchon, An Khe, Hamburger Hill, and the Mekong Delta, along with Kosovo, Somalia, Afghanistan, Kuwait and Iraq as venues where American armed forces have fought.
"Americans have paid, and will continue to pay, the price for our freedom and safety," Branson said. "The blood of American soldiers is permanently mingled with the soil of four continents."
He told of the history of Memorial Day, formerly known as Decoration Day. In 1865, just days after Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered and the Civil War ended, a group of women in Vicksburg, Miss., decorated the graves of war dead.
Three years later, May 30 was set aside for placing of flowers on soldiers' graves throughout America.
At first, the order went out that no flowers were to be placed on Confederate soldiers' graves at Arlington National Cemetery. The ladies complied with the order, but while Gen. James Garfield was speaking, a strong wind arose.
It blew almost all the flowers into the cemetery's Confederate section. Many thought this was divine intervention, Branson said, and the separation was never repeated.
Since World War II, Memorial Day has honored the fallen dead from all our wars.
"Many Americans nowadays have forgotten the meaning and traditions of Memorial Day," Branson said.
"Remember, never forget the price that was paid for the freedoms we enjoy. And remember, never forget that we serve a God who loves us, wants the best for us, and gave his only son to pay the price for our salvation," Branson said.
