Driving out of town on Saturday, I heard a public service announcement warning motorists to avoid drinking and driving this weekend. But it gave me cause to reflect. The weekend leads to a Monday’s commemoration of the men and women who died while serving in the armed forces. I know many of us, I did, spent Saturday and Sunday like it was Labor Day. It was wonderful to enjoy cookouts, family and friends. But Monday, is different.
Nearly all of our communities are holding parades and ceremonies to remember those who died for our country–for us. At Richland Source, we’re observing the federal holiday. If we’re at the parades, it will be to remember and pay respects with our families. We may share our pictures and we hope our readers will. If you would share your parade photos, please feel invited to log on to Richland Source here. Or email them to news@richlandsource.com and tell us where you were.
Many of us know someone who died serving our country and today there are still World War II and Korean War veterans in our parades, and more recently Vietnam, Desert Storm, and Iraqi Freedom losses.
For some, the loss is recent. Army Spc. Allen J. Vandayburg, 20, died April 9, 2004 serving during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Vandayburg was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 2nd Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division, Vilseck, Germany. He lost his life when a rocket-propelled grenade struck his vehicle in Barez, Iraq.
Some losses go further back in the fight for our freedoms.
In May, Arlington National Cemetery held a special recognition. One hundred fifty years ago in May 1864, the first military burials took place at Arlington National Cemetery. There are Richland County service members buried there.
According to Wikepedia, “Mark Matthews was born on August 7, 1894, in Greenville, Alabama, and grew up in Mansfield, Ohio. His horse riding career began early, when he would deliver newspapers on the back of a pony. When he was only 15 years old, he met members of the 10th Cavalry, the original Buffalo Soldier unit, while tending to horses on a racetrack in Lexington, Kentucky.”
He died in 2005 at the age of 111 as the oldest surviving Buffalo Soldier and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
Another Richland County veteran buried in Arlington National Cemetery was a squadron commander at Gettysburg: Captain Seymour Beach Conger. Born in Plymouth, Ohio, on September 25, 1825 he was a farmer near Lexington and was recruited into Company A, becoming its Captain on November 22, 1862. Reaching the rank of Major, Conger was killed on August 7, 1864, near Moorefield West Virginia. No photograph of Conger, according to cemetery records, is known to exist.
Conger lived unscathed through the action at Gettysburg, but was killed on August 7, 1864 near Moorefield West Virginia while the regiment was attached to the Army of West Virginia.
Monday is a federal holiday—with meaning. There will be parades and pause for reflection.
President Ronald Reagan spoke the following words on Memorial Day, 16 May 1982, at Arlington National Cemetery, “Our first obligation to them and ourselves is plain enough: The United States and the freedom for which it stands, the freedom for which they died, must endure and prosper. Their lives remind us that freedom is not bought cheaply. It has a cost; it imposes a burden. And just as they whom we commemorate were willing to sacrifice, so too must we — in a less final, less heroic way — be willing to give of ourselves.”
