In SLO, Memorial Day offers a reminder of ‘the price of liberty’
For some, Memorial Day is a time to barbecue and enjoy that is the non-official start of summer.
For others, the holiday is a time to solemnly remember American military service members who made the ultimate sacrifice.
That tradition traces back to 1868, three years after the end of the Civil War. That’s when May 30 was designated by a Union Army veterans group, the Grand Army of the Republic, as a day of remembrance.
On Memorial Day, I remember my grandmother’s brother, fighter pilot Elwyn Righetti, who was shot down over Germany during World War II.
Elywn was demolishing Nazi aircraft, strafing an airfield, near Riesa when his P-51’s radiator system was hit and the engine overheated.
He crash landed safely but his body was never found.
Over the past two years, we have seen other heroes sacrifice their lives in service of others but we have no named day set aside to remember them.
That includes the health care professionals who treated COVID-19 patients only to die from the disease themselves. Years into the coronavirus pandemic, post traumatic stress disorder and burnout are taking a toll on the doctors, nurses and other medical personnel who provide vital care.
Educators have also given their lives to help others.
On Tuesday, Irma Garcia and Eva Mireles died trying to protect schoolchildren during a mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. The teachers tried to shield their students from an 18-year-old who brought machines of warfare into a classroom.
Some of the shooting victims had to be identified by DNA samples because their bodies were unrecognizable to the parents who dropped them off at school that day.
If we are to truly honor those who died on the battlefield, we must take a moment to imagine the future they fought for. And we must act on it.
As President Abraham Lincoln said in the Gettysburg Address, so often quoted on Memorial Day, “It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work…”
We have much unfinished work to do.
Francesca Cline wrote a Memorial Day ceremony in San Luis Obispo, published in the Telegram-Tribune on May 28, 1996.
Honoring their memory
The county was dotted with red, white and blue Monday as flags on front porches and along cemetery paths snapped smartly in salute to Americans who lost their lives at war.
More than 200 people placed their hands over their hearts as a flag was raised to half-staff above the graves of the 128 soldiers at Lady Family Sutcliffe Cemetery.
“It must be won again, and again, and again until the end of time,” Edson Strobridge said about the flag. “The price of liberty is constant vigilance.”
Monday’s Memorial Day ceremony sponsored by the American Legion, San Luis Post No. 66, and the Lady Family Sutcliffe Mortuary, Cemetery & Mausoleum is to be an annual event.
The cemetery holds the most veterans of the Civil War and the Mexican War period,” Strobridge said. New upright headstones have replaced unmarked graves and poorly maintained markers of those killed in war.
Dan Barba wore a Civil War uniform as part of a reenactment held during the ceremony. He played “Battle Hymn of the Republic” on his 164-year-old violin and later stood behind the tombstone of this great-great-great grandfather , James Comack.
“I think they were all here today giving their blessing,” Barba said. A member of his family has been in every war ever fought by Americans, he said.
Barba hung Comack’s picture on his tombstone next to a lantern with a candle burning inside.
Families and veterans, Sons of Confederate Veterans, Elks Lodge members, United Daughters of Confederacy, Boy Scouts and others prayed in honor of those lost to war.
Eugene Brown Jr. lost his father and his best friend during war time. His father was killed in World War II and his friend was one of the first killed in Vietnam.
“Every Memorial Day, I tear up,” he said. “We were separated.”
Brown survived Vietnam but returns to the cemetery every Memorial Day to honor his loved ones. He described a sign he passed recently that read, “The veterans died for you, at least you could remember them.”
“They can’t get enough attention,” he said.
Rhonda MacDonald brought her two children to the ceremonies to share the memories of the war with them.
“When I was a kid, Memorial Day was very special,” she said. “I try to get them to connect with it.”
Children and adults alike admired the restored 6,000 pound cannon used in the Civil War.
After years of neglect, the cannon used to blast holes in the sides of wooden ships will remain permanently at the cemetery.
“Let it remind you of the cost, dedication and sacrifice spent to enjoy the freedom we have,” Daryl Jessup, cemetery manager, told the assembled crowd.
