Honoring the resting brave
Published on June 2nd, 2004
STONEHAM, MA - As rush-hour traffic snaking down Montvale Avenue lightened with the late afternoon sun, he trudged down the lines of tombstones with a bundle of American flags draped over his shoulder, the stars and stripes dangling in the non-existent wind just inches from the fabric of his navy-blue vest.
With the gated-entrance of Stoneham's Lindenwood Cemetery still within a short-walking distance, Korean War era Army Veteran James Lamb glanced at the deep swath of freshly maintained grave lots and the scores of US flags planted adjacent to the silent stone markers.
"There's a hell of a lot of GI's here. A lot of veterans," said Lamb as he stood amidst a sea of flags.
Then looking out into the still undecorated rows of graves that climb up and beyond the grassy hills of the cemetery, he rearranged the wooden doweled flags on his shoulder -- continuing his search for the metal plaques that identify the dead who once served in defense of the country.
Wishing he saw younger citizens participating in the Memorial Day tradition of decorating the final resting place of the country's veterans, Lamb admitted that it becomes more and more difficult for his 73-year-old legs to handle his four-hour share of the duty.
"I had two women help me earlier today, but I don't think they'll be coming back next year. They're 80-years-old, God bless them," the Stoneham American Legion member remarked. "I'm getting too old to do this myself, my legs just can't take it anymore. Young guys just don't want to get involved. I don't know why."
Now a 136-year tradition, the decoration of veteran's graves began in 1868 when Civil War Army General John A. Logan issued General Order No. 11.
"Let us, then, at the time appointed, gather around their sacred remains and garland the passionless mounds above them with the choicest flowers of springtime...Let no vandalism of avarice or neglect, no ravages of time, testify...that we have forgotten as a people the cost of a free and undivided republic," read the order.
Along with Lindenwood Cemetery, the town's veterans organizations decorated the 14 street island memorials in town as well as St. Patrick's Cemetery and Peabody's Puritan Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery.
"We put it in the paper every year that people can come and anybody who is willing to come is very welcome," said former Vietnam-era Airforce Veteran and Past George Hall VFW Commander Gerald F. Sullivan, who extended his thanks to 17 of the town's cub scouts who assisted with the decorating.
According to American Legion member Mike Flynn, also a Vietnam-era veteran, there are many things outside of decorating graves that citizens can do for Memorial Day.
"The biggest thing people can do is pay attention to what Memorial Day means. Unfortunately, the meaning of Memorial Day has become the day you open your pool and clean your grill for the summer," said Flynn, who added that parents and educators have a responsibility to pass on the meaning of Memorial Day to younger generations.
Flynn also stressed the importance of realizing how horrible the final moments of wartime veterans often were.
"We need to think of all the discomforts these men went through in all these wars. They froze to death. They bled to death. They suffered from heat exhaustion. People need to really think about the living hell these people went through in war," Flynn remarked.
While Memorial Day's purpose is to remember the dead, Sullivan also believes its important to reflect on those soldiers who return home from war wounded and disfigured -- especially in light of those maimed and injured in the current Iraqi War.
"Those are our brothers too," Sullivan commented with reverence. "Too many kids are coming home today with missing legs and they need not be forgotten."
Broaching the very subject of Iraq on Monday morning, enlisted Airforce Capt. James Davis, the town's Memorial Day guest speaker spoke of how those fighting overseas die for the values and causes that have marked all the nation's wars.
"Today ladies and gentlemen, we honor those who left us not knowing how much we would miss them. When we see those white headstones lined up neatly row upon row, it's a reminder of what they did for their country," said Davis, who is stationed at Hanscom Airforce Base.
"Today we face enemies who consider weapons of mass destruction as weapons of choice...As a warfighter, I'm here to tell you that a few casualties will not dissuade us. We're ultimately fighting for our democratic values and way of life. It has to be done."
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