But this Memorial Day is extra special as the park unveils a brand new Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial.
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The alternative name of “Memorial Day” was first used in 1882.
Since the Battles of Lexington and Concord at the start of the American Revolution, more than 1 million Americans have died while serving in the military during wartime, according to numbers compiled by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the Defense Department. Some volunteers place an American flag on each grave in national cemeteries; others leave poems behind as special reminders.
As generations of Americans knew before us, it is right to honor their sacrifice and that of their families, who lost them way too early. The wall has been previously tagged, but the latest vandalism is the most extensive as it covers up the bottom half of the memorial for much of its length. The first national Decoration Day was held May 30, 1868. Columbus, Miss., might have one of the best stories, because it claims that in 1866 a group of women visited a cemetery to decorate the graves of Confederate soldiers who had died at Shiloh, they saw the nearby undecorated graves of the Union enemy dead and decorated those graves also. Many Northern states held similar commemorative events and reprised the tradition in subsequent years; by 1890 each one had made Decoration Day an official state holiday. But in 1968 Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, which established Memorial Day as the last Monday in May in order to create a three-day weekend for federal employees; the change went into effect in 1971. Whether they signed up after 9/11 or died in Vietnam, Korea or either World War, they gave their all when their country said it needed them.
As many Americans around the country relax with friends and family this Memorial Day, I hope they take a moment to pause over their grills and swimming pools to ponder what the holiday really represents.
The name “Memorial Day” became more popular after World War II. It is a debt we can never fully repay, but it is a debt we will never stop trying to fully repay.
“The National Memorial Day Parade will step off Monday – rain or shine”.
“We are here to honor the veterans, the few who were so willing to give themselves and defend their brothers and sisters and our country”, said Charlotte Gillespie, commander of Disabled American Veterans Chapter 3.
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“Because of our courageous troops, the United States faces a bright future of freedom and prosperity”, Feulner said.
