Service veterans and the local community packed the Murray Nelson Government Center auditorium for a Memorial Day service on May 26. With music provided by the Keys Community Concert Band, the service included six speeches along with introductory remarks by John Donnelly, a veteran of the Marine Corps.
Former Army Staff Sgt. Priscilla Johnson, who served from 2000 to 2005, reminisced about a safety patrol trip to Washington D.C., which reminded her of the meaning of wartime sacrifice.
“On every trip, at every sight I’d feel that ache,” Johnson said. “At the Vietnam Memorial, at the Korean War Memorial … that ache is for those who sacrificed. It’s the hurt for those who answered the call and laid down their lives so that we might be free. They are my reason for Memorial Day.”
Johnson also made note of Memorial Day’s origins, which many historians place in an 1865 tribute to the Union dead, which was performed primarily by African American residents of Charleston, South Carolina.
In his speech, Army veteran Brian Wojciechowski emphasized the inherently solemn nature underlying a day of remembrance and the importance of supporting veterans off of the battlefield in their continued struggles.
“I know of at least eight soldiers I have served with who have lost the battle after they left their service,” Wojciechowski said. An estimated 22 American veterans are lost each day due to suicide. “Let us not forget them as well,” he said.
Wayne Leahy, an Army medic who served in the military in the quieter years following the war in Vietnam, spoke on the importance of the military in shaping his upbringing.
“I am extremely grateful that I did not have to go to war,” said Leahy. “The military gave me structure, discipline and pride.”
Yet, Leahy explained, “Even when there’s no war going on, the military can get you into really bad spots.” Leahy remembered many friends who contracted lifelong health problems following radioactive cleanup efforts in the Marshall Islands.
Marine Corps veteran Dr. Dan Chase told the story of the invasion of the Japanese island of Saipan, which constituted the second-largest landing operation in U.S. military history.
In his speech, Ed Davidson, a former Navy Top Gun flight instructor, touched on his experience in Vietnam.
“We’re all the lucky guys here: we got to come back,” Davidson said. Yet the impact of war remains ever-present in the lives and remembrances of its survivors. “Folks in heavy combat remember forever the comrades who never took the uniform off and who sleep forever on the battlefields of the war.”
John Dick, school board member who worked as a combat engineer, advised the audience to “”Remember the soldiers who gave their lives and remember the families behind them.”
The ceremony closed with the playing of the armed forces medley, during which the many gathered veterans were individually honored by their associated branch of combat, and a playing of taps. A reception followed the ceremony at the Armory Speakeasy.
