Monday morning, the VFW Post 3278 and the Ladies Auxiliary honored those in the military, especially those who gave their lives for freedom through a ceremony at Eastlawn Memorial Park in Early. The crowd was great in number, full of veterans, family and friends of those who have served.
Posting of the Colors was performed by the Pecan Valley Detachment of the Marine Corp League. The crowd joined in the Pledge of Allegiance and National Anthem, sung a cappella by Jill Evans.
James Masters, Commander VFW Post 3278 welcomed the crowd and introduced the speaker, Navy Chaplain Jim Looby (Retired). Looby spoke of the many men and women who have given their lives in the cause of freedom, both in the past wars and the present, showing a copy of the Navy Times, which had page after page of the near 500 men and women who have died just this year.
“Whether we like it or not, we are a nation at war…with a sense of anxiety and remorse…let us remember…,“ stated Looby.
He then spoke of the Battle of Gettysburg, where 51,000 men were killed, wounded or missing. He noted how history told of the surgery tables running with blood for 7 days afterward and how numerous times priests were called to read the 23rd Psalms to the men that were dying. As part of the battlefield was to be dedicated to be a national cemetery, Lincoln gave his famous Gettysburg Address:
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate—we cannot consecrate—we cannot hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom— and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
“Since then there have been too many Gettysburgs…,” stated Looby, naming many battles around the world that our nation’s armed forces have been involved. “To their splendid dedication we have to maintain that they too will not have died in vain.”
The families of the recently fallen soldiers of the Iraq War were recognized: Army Major Autry, May 2003; Marine LCPL Mario Castillo, June 2005; Marine CPC Craig Ledsome, November 2006; Army SGT Mario Guerrero, March 2007; and Army SPC Wesley Burkett, March 2008.
Cheryl Campbell explained the significance of the Buddy Poppy, which was given to each person as they came into the service. These mementos are assembled by disabled or needy veterans in VA hospitals to honor the fallen military. She read a touching poem “In Flanders Field.”
After Taps was played and the benediction given, the family of LCPL Mario Castillo joined in a service with the Young Marines to lay a wreath upon his grave and then joined in prayer.
Below is a photo gallery of the services, please click to view more photos.
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