News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Many Sisters area residents and visitors know that Memorial Day is more than a day off work, a chance for a barbecue and time with family — the unofficial first day of summer.
They turned out close to 200 strong to mark the true meaning of the holiday in a solemn yet uplifting tribute to American soldiers who have died in this country’s wars.
The ceremony had an added poignancy as attendees reflected on the fact that American fighting men and women are currently in harm’s way in Afghanistan and in Iraq, where the death toll climbed over 1,700 last weekend.
Local pastors and officials honored the service of the fallen. Father Jim Logan of St. Edward the Martyr Catholic Church in Sisters said that Americans are “grateful for the tears and blood by which our lives and freedoms have been preserved.”
Guest speaker Rep. Gene Whisnant, a retired Air Force colonel and veteran combat cameraman in Vietnam, explained the origins of Memorial Day and noted that we honor not only the fallen, but their widows and orphans as well.
“We must never forget them,” he said.
Senator Ben Westlund recounted his journey to Europe this spring with two surviving members of the 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment, the celebrated “Band of Brothers” immortalized in a book by Stephen Ambrose and a miniseries by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks.
The unit fought across Europe from the June 6, 1944, D-Day landings.
Westlund said that revisiting the sites of their costly triumphs left him and his 17-year-old son with “a profound respect for what all veterans have done in all conflicts.”
Lauren Shultz and Sarah Douglass, members of the Sistes High School Choir, performed the National Anthem as the crowd rose to its feet to salute the flag.The Crook County Naval Junior ROTC Drill Team “Patriotic Performers” presented the flags of the service branches and of the nation and performed an intricate and precise rifle drill.
The ceremony closed with the playing of Taps by Sisters music teacher Jody Henderson, who bid his brother farewell as his brother left Tuesday for a tour of duty in Iraq.
Two F-15-D fighter jets from the Oregon National Guard 173rd Fighter Wing out of Kingsley Field in Klamath Falls roared over Sisters to put an exclamation point on the events.
The ceremony is organized and conducted by Sisters VFW Post 8138 and Sisters American Legion Post 86.
Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
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