‘They gave their lives’: City honors fallen service members
Scores of Houstonians pay their respects at annual Memorial Day ceremony
Margaret Blackwell sat on a walker in blistering heat, facing her late husband’s tombstone.
Dozens of people moved around her, weaving among thousands of graves at the Houston National Cemetery. As they laid flowers and flags at the feet of deceased service members for Memorial Day, Blackwell tenderly placed her hand on her husband’s grave marker.
He served in the Army in the Korean War and died in late 2016. Blackwell and her daughter, Jacqueline, remember the husband and father’s sacrifice and the sacrifice of all service members, not just on the holiday, but every day.
“It’s a special day, but it’s another day,” said Jacqueline Blackwell, holding a black umbrella above her mother’s head. “You can’t say, ‘Remember,’ because you never forget.”
Scores of Houstonians joined the Blackwells at the annual Memorial Day ceremony at the national cemetery, a 419-acre expanse on Veterans Memorial Drive in northwest Houston. Following a parade and address by Lt. Gen. Steven A. Hummer, who is retired from the Marine Corps, a constant stream of people filtered in and out through the early afternoon to pay their respects.
Betty Jones, whose husband fought in the Army in the Korean War, said she has been attending the Memorial Day ceremony for more than 15 years. While Jones’ husband survived the war, others didn’t. Remembering those who died in the line of duty is the least she can do, she said.
“They give their lives,” she said. “You can just give them just one day out of the whole year.”
‘Huge cost’
Memorial Day’s roots go back to the late 1860s, after the bloodshed of the Civil War. Historians say that Americans began holding yearly services for the fallen, and the tradition continued each spring on May 30 to remember those who lost their lives.
After World War I, the observation expanded beyond the Civil War to commemorate any service members who lost their lives. In 1971, Congress made the holiday the last Monday in May.
Each time this year, Army veteran Tony Sechelski, who served in the Vietnam War, specifically remembers several friends who died in the line of duty, he said.
“A lot of people take it for granted, that what we have, it came at a huge cost,” Sechelski said.
This year, Memorial Day also fell close to the 70th anniversary of the Women’s Armed Services Integration Act, which permanently allowed women to serve as full members of the U.S. Armed Forces, not just as volunteers.
At a separate celebration in the Heights, Navy veteran Cmdr. Rosalind Brooks marveled at how far the military has come in allowing women to fully participate. Brooks was granted admission to the U.S. Naval Academy in 1984, just several years after women were first allowed to enter U.S. military academies.
“I am humbled at the many sacrifices and hardships so many made before me to allow many of us to be here today,” Brooks said.
Natalie Sieler, a naturalized American citizen who was born in Mexico, came to the Houston National Cemetery with her husband, two sons and daughter. She and her husband don’t know anyone buried at the cemetery, but they have attended the celebration for years to give thanks to those who died so they could live good lives in the United States, Sieler said.
“Because of where I was born and living here in America, I probably have a more realistic idea of the freedoms that we have here in the United States that we don’t enjoy in other countries,” Sieler said. “We’re free to vote, we’re free to worship. I just don’t take any of that for granted.”
She and her husband have tried to instill patriotism in their children, Sieler said. Now, her oldest son plans to enlist in the military.
A new place
Robert Gallinari, a Vietnam War veteran who served in the Air Force, lives in Guam but has been in Houston for the past several months working as a post-Hurricane Harvey contractor with the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Each year, he attends different Memorial Day services in the different places where he’s contracted. This year’s was one of the best ceremonies he’s seen, just because of the sheer number of people who came out to show their respects, he said.
“I’m just glad to see our nation honor them,” Gallinari said. “This is America. This is what our country is about.”