Memorial Day to honor the fallen

In May 1868, Major General John A. Logan called for a nationwide day of remembrance to pay tribute to those who gave their lives serving our country. The last Monday in May is set aside each year to honor our servicemen and women who answered the call to duty and made the supreme sacrifice in defense of our great nation. 

Memorial Day is an opportunity to honor those who paid the ultimate sacrifice, and to honor our Gold Star families.

Memorial Day remembers our 175 war dead. It is your special day to visit the Fallen Heroes at the Tioga County Veterans Memorial or Civil War Union Memorial in the Courthouse Square. 

Consider visiting a cemetery where a Fallen Hero is eternally resting. While in the cemetery, it is also meaningful to pay respects to veterans who honorably served their country in time of war or peace. 

Stand in front of the Afghanistan, Iraq, Vietnam, Korea, World War II and World War I Memorial. At random, select a name. Say it out loud. Thank the Fallen Hero for his sacrifice. In your own words say a prayer. Salute. Pause to remember our WWII Fallen Heroes buried in European cemeteries near battlefields where they died.  

In a local cemetery, read out loud the inscription from the veteran’s marker or headstone. Thank the veteran for his service. Say a prayer. Salute.  

About 5,000 Tioga County veterans are eternally sleeping under a new American Flag. In about 65 Tioga County cemeteries, volunteer Boy, Girl and Cub Scouts, veterans, youth and volunteers showed respect with “Flags In” ceremonies in the days before Memorial Day. 

For the second year in a row, because of the pandemic and Health Department guidance, Owego will have a Patriotic Motor Vehicle Convoy. To line up, vehicle drivers may report to Convoy Chairman John Loftus from 9:30 a.m. to 9:59 a.m. on Temple Street by the Owego Police Station. Veterans and their families will be riding in cars, pickups, vans, and the Shangri-La Classic Cruizers.  

The convoy will depart at 10 a.m. and travel south on North, east on Main, south on Ross, and west on Front and then disburse on Court Street. 

On the Front Street side of the Court Street Bridge, a remembrance service for Owego’s first WWII casualty and lost Navy dead will take place. Cast into the Susquehanna River, a memorial wreath will remember Seaman First Class Delmar Dale Sibley, entombed since Dec. 7, 1941 on the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor. The Glenn A. Warner Post 1371 Veterans of Foreign Wars Honor Guard will fire a rifle salute. Trumpeter Steve Palinosky will play taps. 

Also on Memorial Day, and on WEBO’s Facebook page from 8:10 a.m. to 10:20 a.m., the 53rd annual Roll Call Ceremony of Remembrance for Tioga County veterans buried in 65 cemeteries will be read by JoAnn R. Walter, writer for The Owego Pennysaver and Mary Beth Jones, owner and editor of the Tioga County Courier. 

The 129th Memorial Day Service of Remembrance will air on WEBO AM FM and Facebook live at 10:20 a.m. with Jim Raftis for his 55th time – first recorded in the newspaper on Memorial Day 1966. 

A Special Tribute will include an Owego Chaplain from the Flats celebrating Mass and Distributing Holy Communion on the English dock before those same troops fell on Omaha Beach on D-Day, to an Owego mother receiving a Mother’s Day visit by two West Point Army Officers regretfully saying her Army Captain son was one of the last to be killed in the Vietnam War near the besieged city of An Loc. 

There will also be the reciting of a General Order by Mayor General John Logan establishing Memorial Day, Invocation by St. Patrick’s / Blessed Trinity’s Deacon and VFW Post 1371 Honor Guard member Michael Donovan, the National Anthem and later a patriotic medley by the Owego Free Academy Brass Quintet (directed by Lindsey Williams), a reading of “In Flanders Fields,” Tioga County Veterans Service Officer Michael Middaugh will read the names of Tioga County veterans who died since Veterans Day, the 70th Anniversary of the Korean War will be recognized as well as the 20th Anniversary of 9/11, Town of Berkshire Supervisor Keith Flesher will update on a possible Veterans Memorial for Newark Valley, Berkshire and Richford, and there will be a “Remembrance” by Gold Star Mother Barbara Bilbrey, who is visiting from her new home in Hinesville, Ga. While here, she will decorate the grave of Iraq Fallen Hero Charles Blbrey, her son, who is buried in St. Patrick’s Cemetery.  

Two graves in St. Patrick’s Cemetery will be honored. Glenn A. Warner VFW Post 1371 will pay tribute to 44-year WWII Navy Command Master Chief Robert E. Rose. Nearby, the VFW Auxiliary will honor the grave of long time active member Caroline Panetti Striley. She rests by her WWII Fallen Hero brother, Staff Sergeant Mario Panetti, who was killed on an English hillside in a plane crash on Christmas Day 1943. Glenn Warner and “Bucket” Panetti both grew up on the Flats.  

Most appropriate on Memorial Day, wear a Buddy Poppy. The VFW Auxiliary placed poppies for donations in True Value, Carol’s Coffee, The Owego Kitchen, Community Shop, Parkview, Sweeney’s, and at the Blue Dolphin.

Don’t forget the National Memorial Day Concert at 8 p.m. on Sunday on PBS, and the National Day of Remembrance at 3 p.m. Monday.

For more special ways to honor Fallen Heroes and veterans on Memorial Day, contact Glenn A. Warner Post 1371 Memorial Day Chairman Jim Raftis by email to jraftis2@stny.rr.com.