Page 6 - Fort Huachuca Scout 5-29-15

6A The Scout
From MEMORIAL DAY3DJH$
remember,’ so this is our way of remem-
bering.”
Later in the day more than 400 peo-
ple gathered at Southern Arizona Vet-
erans’ Memorial Cemetery to pay their
respects. The keynote speaker, Arizo-
na Congresswoman Martha McSally,
opened by saying, “I’ll open with what I
said on the floor of the house this week,
I hope we have had and will continue to
have a meaningful Memorial Day. So
I’ll start with one of my two pet peeves
about Memorial Day. The first is when
people say ‘Happy Memorial Day’ and
go shopping. This is about those who
gave the ultimate sacrifice, this is about
honoring the dead, this is about those
who served and fought and died for our
freedoms so that we have the freedom to
come today … because those freedoms
do not come free.”
“So my first pet peeve is when people
say ‘Happy Memorial Day,’ and I’d ask
you to consider changing language to
‘Have a meaningful Memorial Day,’”
McSally added.
“The second thing is, most people are
not paying attention to this, a lot of peo-
ple are on summer breaks, and having
barbecues and again, those are wonder-
ful things.
“We have the freedom to do those
things because of the brave [men and
women] who served and died, but a lot
of people confuse Veterans Day and
Memorial Day. I often see people out
there, they are being attentive and they
say ‘Thank you for your service.’ That’s
[for] Veterans Day. Veterans Day is for
Max Trickett, 2, places pennies on graves at
the Fort Huachuca Cemetery after the Memorial
Day ceremony. The pennies are left to honor the
fallen Soldiers and as a symbol that their graves comrades.
have been visited.
the living, Veterans Day is for those who FRIDAY, MAY 29, 2015
raised our right hand and came back by
God’s grace … but Memorial Day is to From left, Ken Kovach, director, and Mike Carroll, assistant director, Veterans of Foreign Wars
honor those who died,” McSally said. Post 9972, stand at attention during the Memorial Day ceremony at the Fort Huachuca Cemetery
on Monday.
“And there’s a very important distinc-
tion, although I appreciate people say- .ULVWLQDQG*DU¿HOG/DZVRQPHPEHUVRI*ROG6WDU)DPLOLHVKDYHKHOSIURP6JWVW&ODVV&KULV
ing ‘Thank you for your service.’ It’s so Salles, 40th Expeditionary Signal Battalion, while placing a wreath on display as part of the Me-
important for us to remember as a coun- morial Day ceremony. Membership in Gold Star Families is for those who have lost an immediate
try and as a community that the cost is family member in combat.
so high for the freedoms that we have
today. The direct cost of those who died
in combat since the beginning of our
country is around 1.3 million who died
in direct combat and so we are here to-
day to honor those who came before us,”
she added.
McSally also touched on Agent Or-
ange survivors who have been suffering
from serving and have died from com-
plications after returning home. She
also discussed the need to honor those
with emotional wounds of war and how
they suffer from psychological wounds,
as well as those who died in training.
“Those casualties and deaths must be
honored, we need to honor those today,
McSally said. We have to remember all
of them. [There were] so many more
than just those who died in direct com-
bat and we have to make sure we honor
them.”
McSally and Sierra Vista Mayor Rick
Mueller placed the memorial wreath in
front of the crowd while taps played in
the background.
After the memorial ceremony, attend-
ees were invited to witness the unveiling
of a new monument at the cemetery.
The sun began to set as the memorial
was unveiled. The large slab of granite
with names inscribed on it is to memo-
rialize the fallen from southeast Arizona
during the Global War on Terrorism.
The names of those who paid the ulti-
mate price were read aloud during the
unveiling.
Jim McCormick, Veteran of Foreign Wars From left, Clarence “Shorty” Larson, Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 9972 commander; Arizona
Post 9972, senior vice commander, displays a Congresswoman Martha McSally; Randy Braggs and Mark Wills, Combat Vets Association, un-
wreath as part of a tribute by the VFW for their veil a new monument Monday evening at the Southern Arizona Veterans’ Memorial Cemetery to
memorialize southeast Arizona residents who fell during the Global War on Terrorism.