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Remembering the dead |
More than 150 turn out Monday morning to pay tribute
during a ceremony at Memorial Park |
By Schellene
Clendenin, Newberg Graphic
reporter
E-mail Schellene at
sclendenin@eaglenewspapers.com
|
They were there to remember their parents and grandparents, sons and
daughters, aunts, uncles cousins and friends.
Dozens of Newberg and Dundee residents stopped by Memorial Park
Monday morning to pay their respects to those whose lives were lost
in conflict.
“I am standing here giving honor to the dead,” one man could be
overheard telling another.
“Military members served the nation and paid the ultimate price,”
said retired Air Force Col. Richard Lightfoot, master of ceremonies.
Lightfoot, a member of the local Veterans of Foreign Wars post,
introduced Chaplain Bill Larson to give the invocation. Larson
serves as chaplain to VFW members, and local police and fire
departments.
Larson read from the Armed Forces Prayer, then members of the
Newberg-Dundee Police Department raised the flag while the hushed
crowd listened to the clear, crisp notes of the National Anthem as
sung by Patricia Manson. Lightfoot then led the crowd in the Pledge
of Allegiance.
Chehalem Valley Middle School students Stuart and Greg Leijon read
from Flanders Field and Flanders Field Response to the solemn crowd.
Flags carried by many of the visitors to the park, be they standing
or seated in lawn chairs brought for the occasion, waved in the cool
breeze.
Lightfoot introduced retired Army Lt. Col. Hubert “Hub” Mardock,
with a long list of Mardock’s accomplishments in the military.
“Everyone I knew was either killed or wounded or captured,” Mardock
said of one campaign during his tours in Vietnam. “I finally got
out.”
He added that no amount of money would send him to a country to
watch bullets bounce off the ground a few feet in front of him,
while his comrades lay dead or wounded nearby.
“It was a love of country that got me there,” he said. “And it’s
that same love of country that makes others volunteer to serve in
the armed forces.”
The idea for Memorial Day began with a letter written by Gen. John
Logan, who asked in 1868 that May 30 be set aside as a day to
remember those who died on the battle fields of the Civil War.
Last year’s attendance at the ceremony was down, said Faith Gerstel,
commander of the Lester C. Rees American Legion Post 57 and a member
of the auxiliary who served during the Vietnam War. She attributed
last year’s poor attendance to cold, blustery winds and rain, and
was worried Monday’s event would also be plagued by foul weather.
Attendance Monday was high and organizers ran out of flyers before
the 11 a.m. ceremony began.
Gerstel said attendance was also up at several early morning
services — held at local cemeteries. She attributed the change to a
difference in the way the VFW invites the public to its event.
A man or woman who served in one of the wars, from Civil to
Dessert Storm, are selected and his or her family members called and
invited to the event. Dozens of family members attended each of the
five early morning services, and many stopped by Memorial Park for
the final service.
Gerstel needn’t have worried as uniforms aplenty filled the park
grounds and represented all branches of the service. Also in
attendance were Boy Scouts, police and fire department personnel.
At the end of the event, several small boys shook the hand of Les
Beecroft, former commander of the local VFW post. “Thank you for
serving our country,” the oldest, a boy of about 12, said to
Beecroft. |
|
From
May 31,
2006, Newberg Graphic
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