By Casey Jarmes | The News-Review
WHAT CHEER – The Memorial Day service held at the What Cheer Opera House on the morning of May 26 featured prayer, poetry, music, and a listing of the names of local veterans who had passed away in the last year. Gary Van Patten led people in singing several patriotic songs, one of which he dedicated to Tom Barons, a friend of his who died in Vietnam. The center of the service was an address given by United Methodist Church Pastor Vince Homan, who tied together the biblical story of Moses instructing Joshua to remember all God had done for them, the Rudyard Kipling poem “Recessional,” and the ending of the John Ford directed movie “She Wore a Yellow Ribbon,” all of which feature the same three word message: “Lest We Forget.”
“It was a call not to forget the brutality of war,” said Homan. “No matter your race, no matter your heritage, war is a brutal thing, and we ought not forget the price paid by those who are forced into harm’s way and those who make peace in the middle of that…During our military conflicts, over 600,000 Americans have lost their lives since the First World War…I read that number to myself at home, because I don’t want to forget and how my freedoms came to me. The deadliest conflict for our country during this time frame was World War II, of course, and during that time, over 400,000 service members died. And yet it still seems our remembrance of the human cost of war is fragile. 139,000 plus from the Korean War. There were 211,000 U.S. casualties between 1955 and 1975, all connected to Vietnam. More than 7,000 have died as part of the 21st Century military operations tied to Afghanistan and Iraq. I will not forget those numbers. And yet, these crisis member counts do not reflect all the military lives that are lost, do they? Overall, from 1980 to 2022 there have been 61,000 non-hostile military deaths, amounting to 1,400 deaths annually, including an average of over 250 every year, who died by a self-inflicted wound. Accidents, illness, homicide, self-inflicted wounds, they have taken a toll on our armed forces, even when war was no more. But, despite our best intentions, these numbers, I fear, will only grow in coming years. Many years from now, someone else will be here besides us, and those numbers will have gone up…In the words of former Senate chaplain Reverend Peter Marshall, it is the price that must yet be paid for the Republic, but it is the price that comes with a heavy toll…And should we ever forget, every time there is a conflict or war, we see the flag draped on coffins coming home. It is a stark reminder.”
The service concluded outside, next to the Freedom Rock, where the Keswick American Legion gave a military salute.
