USAG-HI honors those who served

By Ms. Vickey Mouze (USAG Hawaii)June 4, 2012

Firing party
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Memorial wreath
2 / 3 Show Caption + Hide Caption – Command Sgt. Maj. Robert Williamson, senior enlisted leader, USAG-HI, renders a salute after placing the garrsion's memorial wreath at USAG-HI's Memorial Day Remembrance Ceremony, here, May 28. During the ceremony, Soldiers, family members and Hawaii... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL
Taps
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SCHOFIELD BARRACKS, Hawaii -- At 6 a.m., Monday, Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts met here at the Post Cemetery to place U.S. flags and lei at the gravesites of the fallen in honor of Memorial Day.

The Rainbow Senior's Club donated lei as did local school students. Other lei came from local public school students and the Wahiawa Rainbow Senior's Club.

Gabriel Balais, 17, with Boy Scout Troop 32 of Waipio, donated his high school graduation lei.

Gabriel's dad and the troop's scoutmaster, Bobby Balais, said that this was the first year Troop 32 selected Schofield Barracks' Post Cemetery as its Memorial Day service project.

Four hours later, Soldiers, family members and Hawaii residents gathered at the Post Cemetery, here, for U.S. Army Garrison-Hawaii's Memorial Day Remembrance Ceremony.

"Our memorials, our cemeteries, our museums and our monuments serve as proof to our children and future generations that men and women of great character, from all walks of life, left their homes and gave their lives to secure the rights and freedoms of others," said Col. Douglas Mulbury, commander, USAG-HI.

"The third verse of the hymn, 'America the Beautiful' says it best, 'Oh beautiful for heroes proved in liberating strife, who more themselves their country loved and mercy more than strife.'"

Mulbury also quoted retired Lt. Gen. Rick Lynch, former commander of U.S. Army Installation Management Command. "If you want to know the cost of freedom, look into the eyes of the children of the fallen."

Members of Disabled American Veterans, the Military Order of the Purple Heart, the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the garrison command group placed wreaths under the half-staff flag during the ceremony.

Staff Sgt. Gary Uttrich, bugler noncommissioned officer with the 25th Infantry Division Band, played taps.

Uttrich said that playing taps at a Memorial Day ceremony "is a military bugler's most important job." He recalled attending his uncle's funeral in Portland. "He had served in the Navy. We couldn't find a bugler for his funeral. It's just not the same."

Related Links:

Memorial Day Remembrance Ceremony