Memorial Day at Newbury Township

The crowd that turned out for Memorial Day festivities this year was a real tribute to the U.S. armed services, past and present.

By 8:30  a.m. Monday the American Legion Post 663 Honor Guard gathered at South Newbury Cemetery for the raising of the colors with a drum roll by Kevin Borsi, the memorium by Commander Ken Hunter, the Salute to the Dead  and the haunting double-repetition of  "Taps" by bugler Andy Grubbs. Closing prayer was delivered by Pastor Rober Majetich of Grace Evangelical Bible Church. The legion also raised the flags following the parade at Newbury Center Cemetery with the closing prayer by Rev. Fr. James McPhillips of St. Helen's Church.

At Munn Cemetery, where cars lined the drive, the VFW Post 1068 Honor Guard raised the colors and the crowd sang "The National Anthem." Commander Tony Dudich presented the memorium, and Sal Kitko played taps with Chaplin James Fondriest of Cleveland Clinic Hospice offering the invocation and closing prayer.

At 10:30 the Newbry School auditorium was nearly full of residents set to enjoy "The National Anthem" sung by the High School Girls' Ensemble with Ms. Bing at the keyboard. High School Principal Judy Miller read Gen. Logan's Memorial Day Order #11 from the 1800s that urges communities to honor their fallen troops. Jackson Bonner presented Lincoln's Gettysburg Address and Marylyn Bottger sang "God Bless America." The Newbury High School Band provided a spirited edition of "The Armed Forces Salute."

Newbury resident Col. Cynthia Wong, U.S. Air Force Reserves, Inspector General for the 910th Airlift Wing out of Vienna, Ohio, helped are Cub Scouts raise the colors at Munn Cemetery in the morning (left) and later presented the following speech at the school auditorium:

Thank you for asking me to speak about the more than half million Americans who have given their lives for our country. 

For many of us, Memorial Day is more often thought of as a celebration of the end of the school year and the start of the summer. To be sure, it is easy to forget the significance of Memorial Day when the All-American traditions of summer are here to enjoy.  After all, who can resist a day off from work and school, a baseball game, a parade with candy, the Blossom festival, or hamburgers and hot dogs at the American Legion? 

However, the fact remains that Memorial Day is more than a holiday - it is a time for us to remember and express gratitude to the military heroes who give real meaning to the phrase "All-American.”

A Bible verse from Ecclesiastes says it best... It starts off with…”There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the sun: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance,” and ends with “a time for war and a time for peace.”
Memorial Day is that time for us to mourn the lives lost to war.  Please join me for a moment of silence, in remembrance of those 396 military men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country since last Memorial Day; they join the many of thousands of others who have lost their lives to war since our country was founded. 
                         
No words can adequately sanctify the sacrifice that these men and women have made.  But etched on the Army's 2nd Infantry Division Memorial in Burma, are these words "When you go home, tell them of us, and say - for your tomorrow, we gave our today.”
 
Thanks to our noble guardians in uniform, freedom endures today, and for future generations.  Many service members have died defending the future of freedom at places like Bunker Hill, Gettysburg, the trenches of France, Guadalcanal and Normandy, Choosan, Vietnam, Kuwait, Afghanistan & Iraq. 

Since the Revolutionary War, Americans, representing every race, religion, and creed of this diverse American melting pot, have willingly picked up arms to defend this country knowing that they may never make it back. nAnderson Township Marine who died in Iraq this week was killed during a humanitarian mission, his family said.

When I think about the sacrifices made, I think about Anderson Township, Ohioan, Capt. Warren A. Frank, 26, who died this past November while participating in a food distribution mission north of Baghdad.  His team came under small arms fire by an attacker in an Iraqi soldier’s uniform.

 “Our son wanted nothing more than to make a difference in our world,” said Frank’s father, Warren R. Frank. “He was not a movie version soldier, but a man who looked forward to loving his children.  He looked forward to retiring from the service and planned to teach high school history and coach track.  Our deep sorrow is not in the life we had with him, but in the loss of life we always thought we would share.”

The Air Force Times has a Memorial Day tradition of publishing the photos and names of those who have died last May.  Every face has a story.  Here they are 396 of them.  8 are from the state of Ohio.  One of which is Army Specialist  Brad A. Davis of Garfield Heights, OH, who died just this last month from a mine that caused Davis’s vehicle to ignite.  Every picture represents a loss to a family and stands as a reminder of the high cost of freedom that we should never take for granted.

In closing, consider these words that that adorn the entrance to Arlington National Cemetery:  
"Not for fame or reward, not for place or rank, not lured by ambition or goaded by necessity, but in simple obedience to duty as they understood it, these men suffered all, sacrificed all, dared all and died."

May we remember the men and women who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our country. May we honor them by doing everything we can to protect freedom for future generations; may we honor them by doing all that we can to make America a better place for all.

In the years to come, I hope that all Americans will join us to remember the fallen.  We owe it to our friends, neighbors and loved ones who died defending the liberties that we enjoy today.

God bless you and God bless America.