Wicomico County Memorial Day ceremony
Memorial Day is a lot of things: the unofficial kickoff of summer, a day for most to be off work, and another excuse for retailers to have a sale. And as I’ve only been in Maryland since the fall of 2004, this is the second Memorial Day I’ve spent as a Free State resident. But last year I chose to visit my family in Ohio over the holiday so I missed the remembrances here. While it was nice to be with my folks and my brothers enjoying a great cookout, I sort of missed the solemnity associated with the day.
But this year my parents are preparing to retire to Florida so I opted to stay here for the weekend. In years past, I’ve tried to attend some gathering to honor the veterans. Toledo has a Memorial Day parade and ceremony, but generally it’s held the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend and sadly attendance is pretty sparse. One thing I didn’t care for regarding the citizens of Toledo was the small attendance at the Memorial Day parade compared to the thousands who participate in and watch the Labor Day parade. Granted, Toledo is a heavily unionized town, but those throngs should make it downtown twice a year, as Memorial Day in my opinion is vastly more important. Without veterans, we would have neither Memorial Day nor Labor Day.
This morning I attended the gathering held at the Wicomico County War Veterans Memorial.
The theme of the event was a standard: “Never Forget”. With thousands of veterans of World War II and the Korean Conflict dying every year, and the Viet Nam era servicemen advancing toward retirement age, it’s easier for our youth-oriented society to lose track of the sacrifices they made.
This is part of the Wicomico County War memorial. As shown above, it was dedicated on Memorial Day of 2003.
Today’s master of ceremonies was Wicomico County Council President Anthony Sarbanes (shown above.) After observing that to date 1,142,655 American men and women had paid their price for the freedom we enjoy today, he introduced Rev. Tom Bunting, who did the invocation, and the National Anthem, sung by Ronny Cheezum.
After the lowering of the colors by the Wicomico County Junior ROTC, the Gold Star Mothers and the Wicomico War Memorial Committee were asked to stand. Sarbanes also mentioned the elected officials that were present (besides himself): District 38A Delegate Page Elmore, Wicomico County Council members Larry Dodd and Gail Bartkovich, and Register of Wills Karen Lemon. Also spied in the crowd was Wicomico County Sheriff candidate Kirk Daugherty.
We then heard a Proclamation from Governor Ehrlich exhorting Marylanders to set aside some time today to honor and thank our veterans, read by Deputy Secretary James A. Adkins of the Maryland Department of Veterans Affairs.
After Adkins finished, we were given a reading of the Air Force, Coast Guard, Army, Navy, and Marine Prayers.
Ed Tattersall then read the over 180 names of county veterans who died to defend our land. Most of these are enshrined on the wall shown above, with a few additions becoming necessary due to Operation Iraqi Freedom. At the announcement of each conflict (World War I, World War II, Korean Conflict, etc.) a bell was tolled.
The solemn ceremony concluded with Matthew Wallace playing “Amazing Grace” on the bagpipes, the volley of arms by American Legion Post 64 and Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 194, and “Taps” played by Jim Collins. I noticed another photographer on that side of the ceremony (to the left of the stage, I was to the right) so hopefully the Daily Times will record those moments for posterity.
The Reverend J. Harvey Dixon performed the benediction that finalized the half-hour ceremony.
Fortunately, we had a nice day and a fair-sized gathering that included members of the Patriot Guard. When I pulled up to the Civic Center, I saw a huge number of cars and thought attendance would be such to befit this event, until I realized that the majority of them were here for a weekend wrestling tournament being held inside. There were a few who ventured outside to see the festivities, which was good to see.
But if you do nothing else today, thank a veteran for his service. Then again, if you see one August 18th (or any other day on the calendar), you should do the same.
One other thing I missed, and I’m sure it happens all over Delmarva this weekend, is the tradition of placing small flags at the gravesites of each veteran buried in the local cemetaries. Getting my news of this event from the Daily Times, I didn’t see any sort of volunteer contact to do these honors. Hopefully for Memorial Day 2007 this oversight will be corrected, perhaps through the local blogosphere. I’d be happy to help that cause.
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So is Executive Sarbanes related to retiring Sen Paul? (And 3rd District candidate John?)
Yes, Anthony Sarbanes is Paul’s brother. Both hail from this area originally, although Paul Sarbanes (the Senator) has spent much of his adult life in the Baltimore area if I recall correctly. And since John Sarbanes is Paul’s son, Anthony Sarbanes would be his uncle.
[...] Turning to District 37B, first up was James Adkins. Besides having his Ten Questions answers on tap, when he spoke of his prior experience I realized where I knew him from – he was a speaker at the Wicomico County Memorial Day observance. Adkins stated up front that the Eastern Shore faced “tremendous challenges”, particularly education, affordable housing, and health care. He wanted voters to look beyond his term and begin to think about things 20 to 30 years in the future, which showed in his answer to the question on high school dropouts and drivers licenses. On that occasion, he said that taking the licenses away from dropouts doesn’t solve the problem because these kids are “disadvantaged from birth” and the answers really start, among other reasons, with better health care. Maybe a bit short on specifics, he was willing be an advocate and informer for his district, “starting now.” Above all, he urged the General Assembly to “stop treating symptoms” and ask the people how to start solving problems. [...]
[...] I attended the Wicomico County Veterans Day Ceremony this morning, at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, as is appropriate. And with the weather today, it felt more like the last ceremony I attended there at Memorial Day. [...]