U.S. Pauses to Salute Veterans Killed in Wars
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PLANO, Texas — When the band started playing for Monday’s Memorial Day service and the U.S. flag was lowered to half-staff, Navy veteran J.W. “Jim” Harper was overwhelmed.
“You just feel goosebumpy all over,” he said.
Harper, who served on an ammunition ship during the Korean War, joined about 200 people for the ceremony in Plano, one of thousands of observations across the nation.
“Don’t think for one minute that we, as Americans, were given prosperity, peace and freedom as a gift from our benevolent Uncle Sam,” Army Brig. Gen. Kathryn G. Carlson told the crowd at Plano. “The lives of these we memorialize today remind us that it was hard fought and bloodily won.”
Elsewhere, a more recent hard-fought battle stood in the way of Monday’s memorial.
At Grand Forks, N.D., where the Red River forced about 45,000 people from their homes last month, no visitors or observances were allowed at Calvary Cemetery because of flood damage. Some graves had collapsed, and the force of the water toppled some large stone memorials.
In Kansas City, Mo., veterans fired a rifle salute during a ceremony at the Liberty Memorial.
“It brings back memories of the things you went through, the people you knew, wondering what became of them,” said 76-year-old Leo Beeson, who watched the Kansas City ceremony and remembered his two years in the South Pacific during World War II.
Monday’s parade in Concord, Mass., drew just a fraction of the thousands who once came every year. An estimated 600 people turned out, compared with the 4,000 who came to the Revolutionary War town’s Patriot’s Day parade last month.
Navy veterans rode a small boat out into Chesapeake Bay, off Annapolis, Md., to drop a wreath of red and white carnations onto the water in tribute to those who died at sea.
In Dearborn, Mich., a ceremony honored a Vietnam War veteran who had been missing since he was shot down on July 12, 1972. The remains of Air Force Capt. James Huard were returned this year.
“It’s hard every time,” said his brother, Neil Huard.
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