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Union County observes Memorial Day
Loy Hamby served as Grand Marshal of the parade, which featured army vehicles, patriotic floats, and tributes to soldiers. Following the parade, the annual service at the Union County War Memorial was led by Master of Ceremonies Henry Watson. "Today we seek to honor and pay our respects to the men and women who have stood between liberty and tyranny," Watson said. "We are proud to have the opportunity to speak in humble remembrance of their sacrifice, and with great hope that the simple words spoken here today will extend and perpetuate the awareness of their achievements to future generations. We need to take time to give thought to their families, their friends, and to those who loved them. We cannot measure the depth or their loss, nor can we comprehend the true depth of their sorrow. But we can and must extend to them the knowledge that we will never forget their loved ones, their valor, their sacrifice, and the many good things they have earned for us."
Dr. March continued, "How fitting his words are on such a beautiful day as we are gathered to remember those that have given their lives in America's wars. The good Lord has given us three enduring gifts; faith, hope, and love. The greatest and most enduring of those is love." He spoke of those "who have given their all for their country, their beliefs and for their comrades in arms." He shared passages from letters written by soldiers throughout America's wars. "They describe their hopes and their fears, and in one case, the knowledge of their impending death," he said. "These soldiers did not consider themselves to be heroes. They were just Americans who knew the brutal reality of war. They answered their country's call and they gave their best. In many cases, they gave their all.
March told the story of James Williams, a 38-year-old soldier who wrote to his son on June 12, 1779. "Dear son, this is the first chance I have had to write to you. I am by the cause of providence in the field in defense of my country." "Having won independence from a foreign power, the Civil War saw Americans in their most tragic conflict," March continued. It was one in which they fought of the concept of government, where brothers literally faced brothers. Private John Ross Waller volunteered for the army at age 15 and was still a teenager when he dictated a short letter home following the battle of Nashville in 1864.
World War I, the war to end all wars, saw Americans sail to Europe to fight for the freedoms of others in the fields and trenches of France. In a letter dated May 24, 1919, Lt. David Thompson described to his father the recovery of the body of his own brother Joseph Thompson. He had just taken the body of his brother from the woods to a lot in a National Cemetery in France. Thompson described it as a "beautiful place" at the national monument in France, and told his father that he was convinced that Joe should remain there. Barely a generation had passed when "World War II saw the forces of freedom fight a desperate battle against fascism and imperialism in all corners of the globe," March said.
Less than a generation after the Korean War, communism reared its head again, as Americans fought in the mangrove jungles of Vietnam. One veteran wrote a letter to a fellow soldier who had died, telling him all the things he did not get to tell him in life. While many hoped that the world was entering a new era of peace and stability in recent years, September 11 put those ideas to rest. "The war on terrorism shows no change in the willingness to sacrifice on the part of America's soldiers," March said.
Pugmire said he couldn't stop thinking about his fellow soldiers who died that day. "I think about their families and how hard this will be for them," he wrote. "I have so many feelings welled up in me right now; feelings of anger, hate, sorrow, elation, and I don't know how to explain it. We have the best country in the world, and because they called us, we are here, to make sure no one else will fly planes into buildings and kill innocent people. We do it for one another," the letter stated. "Remember them not just today but every day," March said. "For they were our sons and our daughters, our fathers and our mothers, our brothers and our sisters, our neighbors and our friends, and they were us. Remember them for the sacrifices they made and remember them for their love.
"God bless the United States of America, and grant that we may always remember those that have paid such a high price for our freedom."
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