Correspondent

Area Veterans, family, and friends gathered at the county Veteran's Memorial on Saturday to honor Claiborne residents who served in the military and to honor their fallen comrades. Lt. W. Lee Brame, Chaplain for VFW Post 8779, presented the following:

Memorial Day has its roots in Decoration Day, a day when southern women's groups gathered to decorate civil war graves. Memorial Day was first officially proclaimed by General John Logan in 1868 while he was the commander of the Grand Army of the Republic. General Logan directed that flowers be placed on the graves of all the civil way dead, both Union and Confederate, who were buried in Arlington National Cemetery. General Logan noted that Memorial Day was not about division; Memorial Day was about reconciliation; a day to come together to honor those who gave their all.

Many today will remember reading the poem, "In Flanders Fields" as their final spring assignment of some past English class. For those who may not remember John McCrae's tribute to the fallen heroes of WW1, it is short enough to merit re-printing.

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow, / Between the crosses, row on row, / That mark our place; and in the sky / The larks, still bravely singing, fly, / Scarce heard beneath the guns below. / We are the dead. Short days ago / We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, / Loved and were loved, and now we lie / In Flanders fields. - Take up our quarrel with the foe: / To you from failing hands we throw / The torch; be yours to hold it high, / If ye break faith with us who die / We shall not sleep, though poppies grow / In Flanders fields.

After one uniformed soldier read "In Flanders Fields" and Judge (and Army Lieutenant Colonel) John McAfee spoke to those gathered, two members of VFW Post 8779 slowly approached the memorial and placed a wreath with an American Flag and a yellow, ribbon-wrapped flower at the base of the monument. With a solemn salute, the ceremony ended.

If the poet, John McCrae, were still alive, he might be proud to note that the veterans of WWII, Korea, Vietnam, and a dozen smaller conflicts had bravely kept faith with their predecessors. Today, our servicemen and women are still keeping the faith, and holding the torch of freedom high in Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia, Korea, and half-a-dozen other dangerous places whose names seldom appear in any newspaper. Memorial Day is set aside to remember our war dead. Equally important is that we not forget those who still serve.