RADCLIFF, Ky Aca,!" Col. Jarrold Reeves, the deputy commander of Fort KnoxAca,!a,,cs 3d Sustainment Command (Expeditionary), spoke May 31 at the Memorial Day Ceremony co-hosted by Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 10281 and the Kentucky Veterans Cemetery - Central in Radcliff, Ky.
Reeves talked about the history of Memorial Day and claimed it as a time for celebration rather than mourning.
Aca,!A"Rejoice in the hope that Veterans have given the world for its future. For it is not as sad and hopeless people that we come together in remembranceAca,!A|to place a wreathAca,!A|.to dedicate a memorialAca,!A|.but as strong, determined, optimistic, free people that cherish the lives of our service members and look to the future and envision a better world,Aca,!A? said Reeves.
VFW Post 10281 Senior Vice Commander Steve Egan said, Aca,!A"Colonel Reeves spoke the words that probably just about everyone here was thinking. It teaches the next generation what it means to repay a debt, a debt that every Veteran owes to those that did not get to come home.Aca,!A?
For his part, Reeves said speaking at the ceremony made him feel Aca,!A"pride in being an American, a service member and wearing the uniform.Aca,!A?
At the end of the ceremony, a Veteran of World War II unveiled a stone donated by VFW Post 10281 to mark the cemeteryAca,!a,,cs Aca,!A"scattering gardenAca,!A?, a final resting place for the ashes of cremated veterans.
The 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment supplied the color guard and chaplain for the ceremony and Miss Kentucky contestant Jessica Caruso sang the national anthem.
Egan said this ceremony, co-hosted by VFW Post 10281 and the Kentucky Veterans Cemetery - Central is, Aca,!A"hopefully the first of many to come.Aca,!A?
The remains of 1,274 servicemembers and their dependents are buried in the Kentucky Veterans Cemetery - Central. The cemetery opened in 2007 and is celebrating its third anniversary with a June 14 ceremony in which the abandoned cremated remains of 32 Veterans and nine VeteranAca,!a,,cs wives will be reinterred. Those remains include the first Veteran of World War I to be buried at the cemetery. The funeral service begins with a ceremony at the Louisville Memorial Gardens in Shively at 10 a.m. on the 14th, followed by a procession down Dixie Highway to the Kentucky Veterans Cemetery Aca,!" Central where the internment ceremony will begin at about 11 a.m.
Story and photos by Sgt. 1st Class Dave McClain, 3d Sustainment Command (Expeditionary) public affairs. For queries, contact 3d Sustainment Command Public Affairs at (502) 624-8601. For high-resolution photos and stories by the 3d Sustainment Command, please contact the Digital Video and Imagery Distribution System at (678) 421-6612 or access them online at http://www.dvidshub.net/units/3sce.
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