The Memorial Day Parade and Remembrance Service will take place on Monday, May 27 at 11 a.m. Memorial Day is a day of remembering the men and women who died while serving. American flags are at half-staff until noon. Churches remember veterans at their Sunday services.
On Memorial Day, there’s roll calls, VFW remembrances, a traditional parade, Fallen Heroes from six wars remembered by roll call and flag. Also, honored are Purple Heart Recipients, 75th Anniversary veterans of D-Day and Normandy, oldest living WWII veterans and WWII nurses, and this year an American Legion salute on its 100th national and 87th local anniversaries.
The Memorial Day parade will begin at 10:30 a.m., and the 11 a.m. Remembrance Ceremony, in addition to Roll Calls at the Veterans Memorial and the Mass at St. Pat’s will take place at 11 a.m.
From dawn to noon, the flags at the Tioga County Veterans Memorial will be at Half Staff to Honor the War Dead; they will be elevated to Full Staff at noon to honor living veterans. The flags on the Court Street Bridge honor Tioga County’s WWII Fallen Heroes whose Honored Names were not inscribed on the first WWII Memorial.
From 8 to 10:15 a.m., at the Tioga County Veterans Memorial, the 51st annual Reading of Honored Names of 5,000 Deceased Tioga County Veterans will be delivered by Mary Beth Jones and Jo Ann Walter. At 10:15 a.m. at the Memorial, a Special Tribute to Our Fallen Heroes will be presented.
At 8:45 a.m., the VFW Auziliary will honor member Matt Howe in the Delmar Dale Sibley lounge. There will be a tribute while there, to Navy Seaman Delmar Sibley, who is still entombed on the USS Arizona. Four other Pearl Harbor survivors to be remembered are Marine Buster Dunham, Army Cook Don Stocks, Army Combat Infantryman with Bronze Star Richard Hopkins, and Army Air Corps Bill Kennedy.
At 9:15 a.m. at the Memorial, the Glenn A. Warner Post 1371 Veterans of Foreign Wars Honor Guard remembers Bill Edwards, WWII and Korea veteran and two-time post commander – in 1961 and 2007. Edwards was a B-17 Tail Gunner and participated in the Berlin Airlift. He later enlisted in the Army and served in Korea. He was a 35-year Army Reservist.
A 9 a.m., Father Mitch will celebrate Memorial Day Mass at St. Patrick’s Church. Al Gillow will read names of veterans buried in St. Patrick’s Cemetery. All church pastors asked to remember their Fallen Heroes and veterans.
At 10 a.m. on Temple Street, the parade organizes by the Police Station and First Presbyterian Union Church. Invited are all veterans, community organizations, school children, youth sports teams, and patriotic citizens. Report to Parade Marshall John Loftus for the parade lineup. A special invitation is extended to D-Day and Normandy veterans, oldest WWII veterans, WWII Nurses, All Living Purple Heart Recipients, and their families and families of deceased Purple Heart Recipients.
At 10:30 a.m. the parade travels from OPD south on North Avenue, east on Main Street past the VFW, south on Paige Street, west on Front Street past the American Legion, to the memorials on the south lawn of Tioga County Courthouse.
Proudly wear the Buddy Poppy – a small red flower symbolic of the blood shed in WWI by millions of Allied soldiers in defense of freedom. Obtain from a member of the VFW Auxiliary.
The Service of Remembrance at the Tioga County Veterans Memorial begins at 11 a.m. with General John Logan’s Memorial Day General Order to Decorate Graves.
Boy Scouts of Troop 60 will read the names of 170 Tioga County Fallen Heroes as Owego Elementary students place their remembrance flag in a patriotic basket.
Posting of the Colors will be conducted by the VFW Post 1371 Veterans of Foreign Wars Color Guard with Veterans of Modern Warfare of Iraq and Afghanistan, Tioga Post 401 American Legion, and the Vietnam Veterans of America.
Tioga County’s 17 Fallen Heroes buried in overseas cemeteries will be remembered. Special thanks to Erwin Flohr, who will visit the graves of six WWII Fallen Heroes in two American Battle Monument Military Cemeteries. They are The American Military Cemetery in Margraten, The Netherlands, and Cemetery Henri Chappell in Belgium. The U.S. 30th Infantry liberated Margraten on Sept. 13, 1944, where 8,301 Americans are buried including four from Tioga County. First Infantry liberated Chappell where there are 7,983 American dead including two from here.
The OFA Parade Band will play the National Anthem.
Father Mitch, temporary administrator of St. Patrick’s and Blessed Trinity Parishes, will deliver the Invocation, and later benediction. Father Mitch is a retired Air Force Chaplain Major with 20 years of service and many overseas assignments.
A Memorial Wealth Laying will take place at the WWI, WWII, Tioga County, Korea, Vietnam and Iraq and Afghanistan Memorials, Tioga County Civil War Union Memorial, and Memorial for Tioga County’s four Civil War Congressional Medal of Honor recipients – Navy Landsman Richard Stout of Owego buried in Historic Evergreen, Calvary Quartermaster John Tribe of Tioga buried in Halsey Valley, Infantry Colonel Benjamin F. Tracy of Owego buried in Green Wood Cemetery-Brooklyn, and Infantry Colonel Isaac Catlin of Owego buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
The ceremony will commemorate the 101st Anniversary of the Civil War, 78th Anniversary of Pearl Harbor, 77th Anniversary of Battle of Midway June 1942, 75th Anniversary of D-Day, The 74th Anniversary of VE (Victory in Europe) and VJ-Day (Victory over Japan), 69th Anniversary of June 25 – the Invasion of South Korea, 59th Anniversary of first Combat Troops in South Vietnam, 54th Anniversary of the beginning of the Vietnam War, 43rd Anniversary of the Fall of Saigon, 28th Anniversary of the Invasion of Kuwait on Aug. 2, 1960, and the 28th Anniversary of the Gulf War.
Keynote Address by USAF Major Chaplain Father Mitch will be his reflections on a 20-year career as a Catholic Chaplain.
“Salute to America’s Finest” will be performed by the OFA Parade Band and directed by Lindsey Williams. A Roll Call of deceased Tioga County veterans since Veterans Day will be read by Tioga County Veterans Service Officers Mike Middaugh and John Holton.
The 128th Anniversary of the Tioga County Civil War Union Memorial will be recognized, as well as remembrance of Historian and Vietnam Veteran Jerry Marsh, who researched 500 Tioga County soldiers lost in Civil War.
Also recognized will be Troop 60 Eagle Scout Ryan Trenchard. His Eagle Scout project located the exact burial site for Tioga County’s fallen Heroes for “Flags In” and Wreaths Across America.
Special thanks to Tioga Post 401 American Legion Adjutant Tom Simons for coordinating the procurement of 3,100 flags for distribution and placement by his “Flags In” teams in local cemeteries.
Veterans and Scouts placed flags this past week in all cemeteries. Veterans were fortunate to have the outstanding service of Owego Scout Troops 60 and 38, St. Patrick’s and Blessed Trinity Youth Groups, Girl Scouts for Apalachin, and Newark Valley Troop 30 for Flemingville to Berkshire.
Tioga County Veterans Service Director John Holton will report that Tioga County Is officially A Purple Heart County. Each Fallen Hero received a Purple Heart. For recognition of their sacrifice and service, living veterans are asked to report their Purple Heart status. Families are encouraged to report a Purple Heart received by deceased or living veterans. Also participate in the Memorial Day Parade and Remembrance Service.
Thank you to Pat and Bern Trout of England for past placement of American flags on a memorial on a 1,800-foot hillside at Dartmoore National Park, England. Health issues prevented them from going to the park this year. Among the five killed in the Christmas Day 1943 B-17 bomber crash is S/Sgt. Mario Panetti of Owego.
Moving to the Court Street Bridge, a wreath will be cast into the Susquehanna River to remember Navy Buried at Sea. A rifle salute by the VFW Post 1371 Honor Guard and Taps by an OFA Bugler will conclude the ceremony.
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.
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