Memorial Day to honor those who died while serving

Memorial Day is a day of remembering the men and women who died while serving. As part of this remembrance, American flags are at half-staff until noon, and churches will remember veterans at their Sunday services. 

A Memorial Day quote from Singer Lee Greenwood resounded, “And I’m proud to be an American, Where at least I know I’m free. And I won’t forget the men who died, who gave that right to me.” 

On May 28, veterans and community organizations are invited to the 10:30 a.m. parade and the 11 a.m. park remembrance ceremony in Owego. 

From dawn until noon, flags at the Tioga County Veterans Memorial and Tioga County Civil War Union Memorial will be at half-staff to honor the deceased. At noon, flags will be raised to full-staff to honor living veterans. The flags on the Court Street Bridge will honor Tioga County’s 44 fallen heroes that were missed on the original WWII Memorial.   

From 8 a.m. to 10:15, the 50th annual reading of honored names of 5,000 deceased Tioga County Veterans will take place at the Veterans Memorial. At 9 a.m., a Pearl Harbor remembrance will honor the five Tioga County servicemen, who are now deceased, that were at Pearl Harbor on Sunday, Dec. 7, 1941, and their families will be honored by the Honor Guard of the Glenn A. Warner Post 1371, Veterans of Foreign Wars.  

Navy Seaman Delmar Sibley is still entombed on the U.S.S. Arizona. Four other Pearl Harbor Survivors to be honored are Marine Buster Dunham, Army Cook Don Stocks, Army Combat Infantryman with Bronze Star Richard Hopkins, and Army Air Corps Bill Kennedy, whose family will return his ashes to Pearl Harbor. 

At 9 a.m., a Memorial Day Mass by Father Anthony Amato will take place in St. Patrick’s Church in Owego, and an 8:30 a.m. Mass by Father Thomas Valenti will take place at St. James Church in Waverly. All church pastors asked to remember their Fallen Heroes. 

The 10 a.m. parade organizes on Temple Street by police station and First Presbyterian Union Church. Invited are all veterans, community organizations, school children, youth sports teams and patriotic citizens. 

The parade will step off at 10:30 a.m., and will proceed south on North Avenue, east on Main Street past the VFW, south on Paige Street, west on Front Street past American Legion, and on to the memorials on the south lawn of the Tioga County Courthouse. 

An 11 a.m. Service of Remembrance will take place at the Tioga County Veterans Memorial. 

The Boy Scouts of Troop 60 will read the names of 175 Tioga County fallen heroes as Owego Elementary students place their remembrance flag in a patriotic basket. 

Next, Tioga County will remember its 17 fallen heroes buried in overseas military cemeteries, and the Owego Free Academy Parade Band will offer the National Anthem.  

Invocation, and later the benediction, will be given by Father Anthony Amato of St. Patrick and Blessed Trinity Parishes. Rochester Bishop Salvatore Matano ordained him a priest on June 3, 2017.  

A Memorial Wealth Laying by veterans and Gold Star Mothers and Families will take place at the WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam and Iraq/Afghanistan Memorials, the Tioga County Civil War Union Memorial, and Tioga County’s four Civil War Congressional Medal of Honor recipients.  

“Salute to America’s Finest” will be performed by the OFA Parade Band, and directed for by Lindsley Williams, who succeeded Dan Fabricius. 

A Roll Call of deceased Tioga County veterans since Veterans Day will be read by Tioga County Veterans Service Officers John Holton and Mike Middaugh. 

On the 100th Anniversary of the Civil War, Mike Middaugh will remember WWI Fallen Hero William Weeks of Waverly, who died during the battle of Belleau Wood in France.  

During the 127th Anniversary of the Tioga County Civil War Union Memorial, remarks will be given by the Daughters of the Union Veterans of the Civil War President, Karen Messersmith. 

Also remembered will be Newark Valley Historian and published author and Vietnam Veteran Jerry Marsh of Newark Valley, who documented 500 Tioga County soldiers lost in the Civil War. 

The Daughters of American Revolution Owego Regent, Linda Daubex, will report on the Revolutionary War’s impact on Tioga County.  

Moving to the Court Street Bridge, a wreath will be cast into Susquehanna River to remember Navy service members buried at Sea; a Rifle Salute will be offered by the VFW Post 1371 Honor Guard; and Taps will be played by an OFA bugler. 

Encouragement will be offered to Troop 60 Scout Ryan Trenchard. He’s working on an Eagle Scout project to locate the exact burial site for Fallen Heroes for Flags In and Wreaths Across America purposes.  

Thanks for “Flags In” is given to Boy Scout Troop 60 and 38 of Owego, Troop 30 of Newark Valley, the Youth Group of St. Patrick’s / Blessed Trinity, and the Girl Scouts and Apalachin Girl Scouts and volunteers. 

Special thanks also goes to Tioga Post 401 American Legion Adjutant Tom Simons for coordinating the procurement of 3,100 flags for distribution and placement by his team in local cemeteries. 

Tioga County is working to become a Purple Heart County. Each Fallen Hero received a Purple Heart. The Memorial Day Committee is asking living veterans to report their Purple Heart status, and families are asked to report a Purple Heart received by deceased or living veterans. 

Thank you to Gaye Sautro for restoring the stolen and recovered WWII Memorial Plaque honoring Owego WAC Corporal Margaret Hastings; the first WWII plaque for a female WWII veteran. There are books documenting the Shangri-La WAC’s 47-days in the jungle of New Guinea before rescue by glider. 

Thank you to Senator Fred Akshar for inducting Army Specialist Charles Bilbrey of Owego into the New York State Veterans Hall of Fame. Eleven years ago, Bilbrey was killed by an exploding roadside device in Iraq. 

Thank you and congratulations to Dick Zavatto of Candor who championed a Town of Candor Veterans Monument in Maple Grove Cemetery. 

A thanks is also extended to Tioga County Legislature Chair Martha Sauerbrey and New York State Senator Fred Akshar for their proclamations thanking Erwin Flohr of the Netherlands for adopting the graves of six Tioga County WWII Fallen Heroes – four are buried in Margraten and two in Henri-Chapel cemeteries. 

John and Carole Shubert of Owego – while on a WWII Tour in Europe – personally presented our community’s expression of gratitude to Erwin Flohr at the gravesite of Glenn A. Warner, for whom the Owego VFW Post is named. 

Thank you to Pat and Bern Trout of England for placement of American flags on a memorial on a 1,800-foot hillside at Dartmoore National Park, England. Among the five killed in the Christmas Day 1943 B-17 bomber crash is S/Sgt. Mario Panetti of Owego.   

For more information, contact Glenn A. Warner Post 1371 Veterans of Foreign Wars Memorial Day Chairman Jim Raftis by email to jraftis2@stny.rr.com, or by calling 687-4229.