Taken from the "This
Week News" local
paper
Veterans gearing for Memorial Day
Thursday, May 24, 2007
By TARA STUBBS-FIGURSKI
Enterprise Staff Writer
The Gahanna Veterans Memorial Committee will host a citywide
observance of Memorial Day at 1 p.m. Monday, May 28, in Gahanna Veterans
Memorial Park.
The theme for this year's event is "Remember Their Sacrifice."
The guest speaker for the celebration is Lowell Chambers, M.D. He was
stationed on the U.S.S. Kitty Hawk during Operation Endearing Freedom in
2001-02 prior to becoming staff surgeon at Camp Pendleton Naval
Hospital.
"We usually try to get somebody that is connected with the theme some
how," said memorial committee spokesman Bob Fickle.
According to a release issued by the committee, Chambers served as a
trauma surgeon during the initial combat deployment of the U.S. Marine
Corps' Forward Resuscitative Surgical System and again during the
counter-insurgency phase of operations in Fallujah.
The master of ceremonies is Alvin Burzynski, Chalmers P. Wylie VA
Clinic's chief of public affairs.
American Legion Post 797 will present the colors; Gahanna Lincoln
High School student Scott Prand will sing the national anthem; the Rev.
Michael R. Bean of St. Paul AME Church will provide the invocation and
benediction; VFW Post 4719 will fire the 21-gun salute; and GLHS
students Kyle Granville and Bob Koob will play "Taps." The event also
will include dedication of 25 new memorial bricks in the Veterans
Memorial Plaza, bringing the total to more than 2,000.
Local chapters of the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars
will participate in the day's events.
Also on Monday, the Gahanna Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 4719 will
hold memorial ceremonies at a number of local cemeteries.
Quartermaster Ray Jarvis said VFW members will start at Riverside
Cemetery on Sunbury Road at 9 a.m., move to Maplewood Cemetery near New
Albany at 9:45 p.m., Jefferson Cemetery in Blacklick at 10:45 a.m. and
gather at the bridge in Olde Gahanna at 11:30 a.m.
"Will will place a wreath in memory of those who were lost at sea
(and) then march to Mifflin Cemetery for the final service of the day,"
Jarvis said.
Memorial Day commemorates the loss of veterans who have given their
lives in service to their country. |
