Wicomico County Memorial Day service

Back on Monday, Wicomico County conducted its annual Memorial Day service. Before the federal government reworked the observation calendar to ensure Memorial Day would culminate a three-day weekend, Memorial Day was celebrated on May 30th; hence the post today.

For the last five years I have attended the Wicomico ceremony and it hasn’t deviated from a set format. The only things which seemingly change are the number of names read (this year we added one name to the list of Wicomico County’s fallen in battle, bringing it to 188 since World War I), and the number of people attending – which also seems to increase.

An overall shot of the gathering on Monday to honor Wicomico County's fallen.

As always, former County Councilman Anthony Sarbanes served as the master of ceremonies. It was while he served on Wicomico County Council that the Memorial was dedicated, in 2002.

Former County Councilman Anthony Sarbanes addresses the gathering.

After brief remarks, we had an Invocation and singing of our National Anthem, along with the Pledge of Allegiance.

I took this picture just before the lowering of the colors. Regardless of the forecast, we've always seemed to have at least fair weather each year I've attended.

Then the colors were lowered and various family members of recently fallen veterans, the surviving veterans attending, and elected representatives were recognized.

At that point, each military branch had its prayer read aloud.

Each of these people represented a various military branch and read their respective prayer aloud to those veterans who served in those branches.

The program maintained tradition at this point as a bell was tolled prior to reading the rank and name of each of those who perished in their respective engagements, beginning with World War I through Operation Iraqi Freedom.

John Lynch has served as the bell-ringer during each of the services I've attended. He tolls the bell prior to reading the group of names associated with each military operation, for a total of six.

The 188 ranks and names are read by Ed Tattersall.

Ed Tattersall reads the ranks and names of each of the 188 fallen who hailed from Wicomico County.

After the names have been read, the program immediately shifts to “Amazing Grace”, played by this lone bagpiper.

Matthew Wallace, in full traditional regalia, plays 'Amazing Grace' on the bagpipes.

Following the playing of the traditional hymn, the silence is broken by a volley of arms saluting those who made the ultimate sacrifice.

The volley of arms is annually performed by representatives from the Wicomico County Sheriff's Department.

To close the proceedings, we hear the playing of “Taps” and a Benediction.

One change that has occurred in the years I've attended this ceremony is a second player for 'Taps'. Randolph Dashields and John Jochum played the Civil War-era song to bring the observation to a close.

Obviously there is a little bit of upkeep involved in maintaining the Veterans Memorial at the Civic Center, so there’s a donation box placed out each year to help out.

It's not exactly overflowing with cash but there were quite a few dollar bills placed into the box. They shrewdly left the flags and programs nearby so people would notice the donation box.

As I noted, the proceedings don’t change from year to year. One oddity of scheduling which occurs annually is that the Wicomico Youth and Civic Center simultaneously hosts a large youth wrestling tounament on Memorial Day weekend each year. I found it fitting then that the Navy brought a recruitment trailer this year to see how these wrestlers stack up to Navy SEALs in their training.

If you can't get the youth to the recruiting office, why not take your case to them? Looks like a neat interactive recruitment tool for the Navy - likely the other branches have something similar out and about around America.

To leave, I’ll put up a statement about Maryland’s valor which dates back over 200 years.

General Washington thought Maryland's finest were quite fine. This is just a neat historical tidbit I like to show.

Author: Michael

It's me from my laptop computer.

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