Memorial Day a time for remembrance
Monday morning at Warren County Memorial Airport there will be minutes of silence as the names of those Warren countians who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country are read aloud in remembrance and honor of their service to the freedom we all enjoy.
The annual ceremonies are held on the airport grounds at 7 a.m. and are generally the first Memorial services held every Memorial Day in the state of the Tennessee. The order of service generally has a presentation of flowers at the airport memorial, an address on the meaning of Memorial Day, the reading of the war dead, a salute fired by members VFW Post 5064 and American Legion Post 173 and the playing of ?Taps.? Those who have not attended are encouraged to rise a little early Memorial Day, to pay their respects to those fallen in service of the red, white and blue. By doing this you are participating in a long tradition.
Memorial Day was officially observed for the first time on May 30, 1868 when flowers were placed on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery, honoring those fallen in the Civil War. New York was the first state to recognize the day as a holiday in 1873 with the remainder of the northern states joining in the observance by 1890.
However, lasting bitterness over the Civil War and Reconstruction caused most Southern states to refuse acknowledge the day, as they honored their Confederate dead on separate days. This continued until after World War I when the day was changed whereby it was a day to remember and honor American soldiers fallen in all wars. There is still a separate day when Confederate dead are honored in Tennessee, that being Jefferson Davis? birthday on June 3.
While this will be the 139th observance of a day of memorial, it is important that we do not let it become just another holiday, lost on the lakes, in the pools or on the roads. The day itself was established to remember the ultimate sacrifice made by those who gave their all for their country. The importance of this day should be treated as a tradition to be passed down to our children and our children?s children so that they too will pause to honor the sacrifices made by the few for the many.