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 our Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines, Coast Guardsmen and Merchant Mariners who paid the ultimate sacrifice. Memorial Day is an important opportunity 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 or in the Civil War Section of Historic Evergreen Cemetery.
Consider visiting a local 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 or her 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.
Around 2,500 flags were placed in Eastern Tioga County, thanks to procurement and distribution by the American Legion Post 401’s Tom Simons and his Flag Detail Teams.
Owego has celebrated Memorial Day for 154 years with a parade and a park Remembrance Service.
To line up for the parade report to Parade Chairman John Loftus from 9:30 a.m. to 9:59 a.m. on Temple Street by the Owego Police Station. You may march or ride in your car, pickups, vans a.m. Shangri-La Classic Cruisers with people from all Owego organizations, businesses, etc. with an invited veteran or Gold Star Family. School children can march, waving flags.
Chairman John Loftus moves the parade led by police units at 10 a.m. sharp. Streets are south on North, east on Main, south on Paige, and west on Front and disperse on Court Street. Marching or riding are veterans from the Vietnam Chapter, Tioga Post 401 American Legion, and Post 1371 Veterans of Foreign Wars.
Parade officials are honored to have the owner of Tioga Downs, Jeffrey Gural as Parade Marshall. Gural is a strong civic and community supporter and has donated to Southern Tier Veteran causes.
At WEBO, the 54th annual Roll Call of Remembrance for Tioga County veterans buried in 65 cemeteries will be aired on WEBO’s Facebook page from 8:10 a.m. to 10:15 a.m. by Owego Pennysaver Staff Writer Jo Ann Walter and Tioga County Courier Owner and Editor Mary Beth Jones.
The 35th Memorial Day Service of Remembrance from the Tioga County Veterans Memorial will air on WEBO AM FM live at 10:15 a.m. with Jim Raftis, for his 56th time, and first recorded in the newspaper Memorial Day 1966 will serve as emcee.
A Special Tribute will include a remembrance of Fallen Heroes. Also, an Owego Chaplain, Father Eddie Joe Waters from the Flats, celebrated Mass and Distributed Holy Communion on the English dock before those same troops fell on Omaha Beach on D-Day. Also, an Owego native mother receiving a Mother’s Day visit by two West Point Army Officers regretfully says her Army Captain son was one of the last to be killed in the Vietnam War near the besieged city of An Loc.
The Service of Remembrance begins with DAR Regent Karen Messersmith placing a wreath at the Civil War Memorial, remembering 500. Owego Elementary School and PTO Coordinator Kasey Chobot will have youth place the flag they carried in the parade into a patriotic basket at the memorial, as Boy Scouts from Troop 38 read the names of Fallen Heroes
There will be a reading of a General Order by Mayor General John Logan establishing Memorial Day, and Invocation by St. Patrick’s / Blessed Trinity Deacon and VFW Post 1371 Honor Guard member Michael Donovan, the National Anthem, and later a patriotic medley by the Owego Free Academy Marching Band, directed by Lindsey Williams.
The Keynote speaker is retired U.S. Army Chaplain Captain and Bronze Star Recipient Patrick VanDurmie. He’ll share highlights of a year in war torn Northern Iraq, and celebrating Easter Vigil Mass for 300 troops in the oldest Iraq monetary – later destroyed by ISIS.
The poem, In Flanders Fields, will be recited. Tioga County Veterans Service Officer Michael Middaugh will update services that his agency provides veterans. There will be a Roll Call of Tioga County veterans who died since Veterans Day. This year is the 72nd Anniversary of the Korean War and the 21st Anniversary of 9/11.
A “Remembrance” by Gold Star Mother Barbara Bilbrey, visiting from her new home in Hinesville, Ga., is set as Bilbrey arrives decorate her son, Iraq Fallen Hero Charles Blbrey’s grave in St. Patrick’s Cemetery.
On the Front Street west 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 U.S.S. Arizona at Pearl Harbor. Glenn A. Warner Post 1371 Veterans of Foreign Wars Honor Guard will fire a rifle salute. Trumpeter Steve Palinosky will play taps.
Two graves in Tioga Cemetery will be honored. Glenn A. Warner Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1371 Honor Guard will pay tribute to past Post 1371 VFW Commander Ralph Meza, an Army Air Corps Veteran and POW in Stalag VII-A, the largest POW camp in Nazi Germany and north of the town of Moosburg in southern Bavaria; and 27-year VFW Auxiliary member and IBM Owego retiree Joyce Lurcock.
Most appropriate on Memorial Day, wear a Buddy Poppy. The VFW Auxiliary project, led by Dorolyn Perry, placed poppies for donations in True Value, Carol’s Coffee Shop and Art Bar, The Owego Kitchen, Community Shop, Parkview, Sweeney’s, and the Blue Dolphin. They’ll be available at the park for a donation.
Don’t forget the National Memorial Day Concert at 8 p.m. Sunday on PBS and the National Day of Remembrance at 3 p.m. Monday wherever you are for a moment of silence.
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.
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