MARINE CORPS AIR STAION YUMA, Ariz. -- A Memorial Day Mass was held at the station chapel here May 28.
Members of the station’s Catholic community hosted members of the area’s sister parishes and U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground communities to participate.
Nearly 300 station and community members attended the mass and the service received a great deal of positive feedback, said Cmdr. Douglas D. Smith, station chaplain.
Edwin F. O’Brien, archbishop of the U.S. military, presided and was assisted by area clergy, including Monsignor Richard W. O’Keeffe, Immaculate Conception Parish, retired Navy Capt. John F. Friel, and the Rev. Marcos Velasquez, Sacred Heart Parish, Nogales, Ariz.
The service began with Sgt. William Branstetter, Aircraft Rescue and Fire Fighting materiel supervisor, leading the station color guard in the presentation of the colors. They were accompanied by “Hymn to the Fallen,” written by John Williams for the movie “Saving Private Ryan.”
An honor guard passed Col. Ben D. Hancock, station commanding officer, and his wife, Donnette. The CO also laid a memorial wreath in front of a display of the names of those service members who died during Operation Iraqi Freedom in the past year.
The service had been in planning since November, and was collaborated by station service members and religious representatives from the community, said Smith. It’s important that military installations especially, should be doing more of to celebrate the reasons for this holiday.
Memorial Day is a federal holiday celebrated on the last Monday in May and represents a day of awareness to honor and pay respects to those Americans who died while defending the nation and its values. It was originally called Decoration Day and was officially declared in 1868 by Army Gen. John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic. It was first observed May 30, 1868, to commemorate the dead from the Civil War. Throughout the years, it came to serve as a day to remember all men and women in the United States killed or missing in action in all wars.
Currently, Memorial Day is celebrated by people in many different ways. Visiting cemeteries and placing flags or flowers on the graves of our fallen heroes, visiting memorials, and parades are a just a few.
“Even though this national holiday commemorates all who gave their lives in service of the nation, the public display of names made this year’s observance all that much more a matter of current events,” said Smith.