Memorial Day needs community support for parade and veteran recognition

Always Remember Fallen Heroes of all wars. Don’t forget the WWII D-Day and Normandy Fallen Heroes and Survivors on their 75th Anniversary. Recognize oldest WWII veterans. Honor all Purple Heart Recipients living and deceased. Proudly acknowledge Tioga County as a Purple Heart County. Give special congratulations to Tioga Post 401 American Legion on its 87th Anniversary and National American Legion on its 100th Birthday. Those are some of the most important events on the crowded program for Owego’s Memorial Day 2019, set for May 27.

Community involvement is most important to make this one of the best Memorial Day Remembrances. 

What’s needed is this. Profiles of Fallen Heroes locally and in overseas military cemeteries. Information sought from families for 10:15 a.m. Special Tribute to Fallen Heroes. 

Who participated in the D-Day and Normandy invasion? 

Identify Owego and Tioga County’s oldest WWII veterans? 

Most difficult is for Purple Heart Recipients to step forward and proudly share their Purple Heart stories before it is too late. March or ride in the parade and be recognized at the park. A Purple Heart float would be most appropriate. 

Post 401 American Legion members have distinguished themselves with service to the veterans and community ever since their inception. Their story must be and will be told. Legionnaires welcome to march/ride in the parade. Muster at the park for recognition.   

But it takes the community to provide all this data and patriotic actions.  

Parade Marshall John Loftus welcomes all community organizations to march or ride in the Memorial Day parade on four Owego streets. That means Owego Little League, Owego-Apalachin students, church groups, Scouts, travel sports teams, businesses, service organizations, public officials, veterans from communities not holding services, and those not mentioned but interested.  

But a Transportation Officer is needed to line up vehicles for those unable to march including veterans, WWII veterans, Purple Heart Recipients and Legionnaires and others. 

Overview of Memorial Day at Tioga County Veterans Memorial –  

Flags at Half Staff at dawn; at 8:15 a.m. Roll Call of Honor for 5,000 Deceased Tioga County veterans by Mary Beth Jones and Joann Walter; at 8:45 a.m., the VFW Post 1371 Auxiliary honors member Matt Howe in the VFW’s Delmar Dale Sibley Memorial Hall; at 9 a.m., a Memorial Day Mass will take place at St. Patrick’s Church; at 9:15 a.m., the VFW Post 1371 will hold a Memorial Service honoring Past Commander Bill Edwards; at 10 a.m., the Parade lines up on Temple Street; from 10:15 to 10:30 a.m. there will be a Special Memorial Tribute and Fallen Hero Stories will be provided by families; at 10:30 a.m. the parade will depart from the police station and travel to North Avenue, and then North to Main to Paige , and then from Front to the veterans memorial. 

The Service of Remembrance will begin at 11 a.m., with Boy Scout Troop 60 reading the honored names of 170 Tioga County Fallen Heroes. Each Fallen Hero will be remembered by an Owego Elementary School Student with an American flag carried in the parade.

There will be a Posting of the Colors by VFW Post 1371; the National Anthem by the OFA Parade Band; Invocation and keynote address by 31-year priest Father Mitchell “Mitch” Zygadlo, administrator of the Blessed Trinity/St. Patrick’s Parishes and a Retired 20-year Chaplain Major United States Air Force with deployment to nine bases in the United States, Korea and Europe; a POW/MIA Remembrance, Remembrance of D-Day and Normandy veterans, and Recognition of oldest WWII veterans and Purple Heart Recipients including Tioga County Is A Purple Heart County by Tioga County Veterans Service Officer John Holton.

There will be Remembrance Wreath Laying; Remembering 17 Fallen Heroes Buried in Overseas Cemeteries and a Roll Call of Tioga County Veterans Deceased since Veterans Day by Tioga County Veterans Service Officers John Holton and Mike Meddaugh. Thank You to VFW Post 1371 Honor Guard for ceremonies at veterans’ funerals.

The Daughters of the American Revolution will give a report; the Benediction will take place; a Navy Burial at Sea Memorial Wreath Ceremony will take place on the Court Street Bridge followed by a rifle salute by VFW Post 1371 Honor Guard and Taps by an OFA Marching Band Bugler.

Contributions are needed to purchase Memorial Wreaths at the Tioga County Veterans Memorial for the WWI, WWIIs, Tioga County, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq/Afghanistan and Civil War Memorials.     

Remember to buy a Buddy Poppy, the flower that remembers troops who made the ultimate sacrifice, from members of the VFW Post 1371 Auxiliary.

This is a developing story. Future reports will focus on “Flags In” – the mid-May placement of stick American flags on the gravestones of veterans by scouts and veterans.  

Also on an update on what’s needed to update the working database of the 2008-2009 Project Homecoming Tioga County Veterans Cemetery Survey.

For more information, contact Glenn A. Warner Post 1371 Veterans of Foreign Wars Coordinator Jim Raftis at jraftis2@stny.rr.com.