Veterans remembered at Memorial Day ceremony
Fifty-four local veterans have passed away since Memorial Day 2018. Their names were read and each was honored with a bell toll Monday during the Memorial Day ceremony hosted by the American Legion Post 29 at the Community Building.
This is the first time American Legion Post 29 has read a list of names of local veterans who have died over the past year, according to Adjutant J.W. Smith. The list was compiled from people whose funerals were handled by Wasson Funeral Home or Backstrom-Pyeatte Funeral Home in Siloam Springs, Smith said.
Guest speaker Lt. Col. John Easely, who is also a member of Post 29, shed some light on the
number of veterans who have died in the name of freedom. Dating back to the Revolutionary War, his research estimates more than 1.1 million men and women have died fighting to defend the freedoms preserved for us today.
“That’s the total price paid to preserve our liberty and freedom,” Easely said.
Easely issued a challenge to those in attendance Monday: Find your ancestor in the country’s patriot lineage.
“By reading their story they live on and continue to serve,” Easely said.
Mayor John Turner highlighted the Killed in Action Memorial that sits in the city’s newly opened Memorial Park.
“Go and reflect,” Turner said. “Reflect on the ultimate sacrifice men and women of our area made for our country.”
The ceremony was opened with the presentation of the colors and closed with the playing of taps and the retiring of the colors.
Members of the Siloam Springs High School choir performed the National Anthem and “God Bless the USA.”
According to the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, Memorial Day was declared an official holiday in 1971 by an act of Congress.