Quayle, Gen. Powell Preside at Services for War Victims

The euphoria stirred by the victory in the Persian Gulf War gave way Monday to quiet Memorial Day services and parades for military men and women killed in combat.

“Memorial Day is a day of gratitude, a day when we pay special tribute to American heroes who have sacrificed their lives for their country,” said Vice President Dan Quayle, who helped place a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery.

Across the Potomac River, Gen. Colin L. Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke at a ceremony at the Vietnam War Memorial, on which are carved the names of 58,175 U.S. military personnel who died in that conflict.

He walked up to a man in a wheelchair, Patrick McElrath, 21, a paratrooper who lost the use of his legs during the 1989 Panama invasion, and saluted.

The private first class saluted back, tears coming to his eyes.

“It’s pretty evident no one’s forgotten the little wars like Panama and Grenada,” McElrath said. “I didn’t know that because I was in the hospital for so long.”

Powell was wildly cheered during the nearly two-hour afternoon ceremony at the stark wall.

“We are thankful for a clear victory of arms in the Gulf War with a blessedly small number of casualties,” he told a crowd of at least 500 people sweltering under hazy heat and humidity.

Skeletal fragments from nine unknown Civil War soldiers were buried in the National Cemetery at Gettysburg, Pa., in a ceremony attended by about 10,000 people.

“We haven’t a clue to their names, nor their hometowns, nor which uniform they wore,” said the Rev. Daniel T. Hans, pastor of Gettysburg Presbyterian Church. “All we know is they served and died for a cause in which they believed, a cause that divided and nearly destroyed this nation.”

Memorial Day was painful for Kevin Barr, 27, of Idaho, who a week and a half earlier discovered the name of his father on the black granite slabs of the Vietnam wall. Barr, one of thousands who visited the memorial on Monday, never knew his father, John.

“I went through my whole life thinking he was a bum for not coming back to his son,” he said, unable to hold back tears. “All my mom ever told me was that he was in the Navy. I never knew he died in the war.”