FORT SILL, Okla. (May 30, 2013) -- A veteran, a Soldier and an ROTC cadet spoke about the meaning of Memorial Day May 27, during a ceremony at the Fort Sill Post Cemetery.
Retired Lt. Col. Jerry Orr, age 78, a former field artillery officer here; Maj. Gen. Mark McDonald, Fires Center of Excellence and Fort Sill commanding general; and Colten Kennedy, 24, a Cameron University student, represented the past, the present and the future respectively, at the annual commemoration.
Hundreds of people attended the late-morning ceremony, which featured music from the 77th U.S. Army Band, posting of the national colors by the Fort Sill Joint Color Guard, a 21-round salute by 2nd Battalion, 2nd Field Artillery "Big Deuce," and support from the 30th Air Defense Artillery Brigade. During the playing of taps the U.S. flag in front of McNair Hall was raised from half staff to full staff.
In his invocation, Installation Chaplain (Col.) Sherman Baker, said: "O mighty God ... we come together to offer our gratitude for all the men and women who have served this country in defense of freedom. For their sacrifice of time, talent and life, we pay them homage."
McDonald said it was frontier Army Soldiers, who headed west to Fort Sill to ensure the land was safe for pioneer families.
"They (Soldiers) left the comforts of the East to secure and protect our citizens," McDonald said. "... so many of those first Soldiers, and in some cases their families, gave their lives here."
He implored the attendees to visit the fort's Old Post Quadrangle, to stand on the hallowed grounds those Soldiers patrolled.
Memorial Day is a time to remember service members who made the ultimate sacrifice, the general said.
"They did not give out of selfish ambition, but rather fulfill the tenents of a nation that they served -- honor, integrity and selfless service," he said.
McDonald quoted former United Kingdom Prime Minister Winston Churchill: "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few."
Those words are still appropriate today, said McDonald.
Program narrator John Starling gave a brief history of Memorial Day, and he said it was originally called Decoration Day.
"Memorial Day was officially proclaimed May 5, 1868, by Maj. Gen. John Logan, the national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic," Starling said.
Orr, of Lawton, said Memorial Day is not about picnics and ball games. It is a time to remember the Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen, who died protecting America, and what it stands for: families, children, freedom, morality, values and responsibility.
"Memorial Day is a time for Americans to reconnect with their history and the core values by honoring those who gave the ultimate price -- their lives for the ideals we cherish."
Orr recalled America's wars from the Revolutionary War to today's fight in Afghanistan, noting that more than 1.2 million American men and women have died in conflicts.
"Many of our finest young Americans are still serving in harm's way," he said.
During the ceremony, veterans service organizations members Rothena McGee, Darrell McGee and Larry King, placed one red, one white and one blue flower on a wreath. Then McDonald, Orr and Kennedy placed the wreath at Chiefs Knoll, the highest point in the cemetery.
The wreath was then blessed by Ray Joe-Lynn, Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 5263 chaplain.
"As comrade after comrade departs, we march on with our ranks grown thinner. [God] Help us to be faithful unto thee and to one another. Look in mercy on the widows and children of our departed comrades," Joe-Lynn said.
Kennedy, who will graduate next year, said it was the deaths of two recent CU graduates that really made Memorial Day significant to him.
"Knowing they're from my school, seeing their young families that really brings it home," Kennedy said.
He said the sacrifices of the fallen should never be taken for granted.
"It remains for us, the living, to honor that sacrifice and to maintain a memory of their service on the forefront of our nation's consciousness," he said.
After the ceremony, many attendees including Nettie Quinlin, visited gravesites at the cemetery. She said she always attends the post's Memorial Day ceremony.
"I thought it was beautiful," she said, referring to the ceremony.
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