The 2016 Memorial Day Ceremonies will be held in Morrison, IL, on Monday, May 30, 2016. The parade will start at 10:30 a.m.
Parade line up will begin on E. Main Street one half hour before the parade at 10:00. The parade will travel west on Main Street from Madison to Genesee Street and then move north on Genesee to Grove Hill Cemetery.
The Memorial Service will be at the Veterans Memorial and Pavilion starting at approximately 11:00, with time allowed for everyone to travel from the downtown parade route.
This year’s speaker is Al Pruis, a Morrison native and U. S. Army Vietnam Veteran.
Everyone is invited to join the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the American Legion in commemorating those who died while serving America in the military.
Editor’s note: David Bean was guest speaker at the Monday, May 25, 2015, Memorial Day Ceremonies. His speech follows.
Good morning. Thank you to the veterans who are here with us today, and let us remember those who are not. I will begin with a quote from Abraham Lincoln.
“Let us have faith that right makes might; and in that faith let us to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it.”
As Americans, we sometimes take our freedoms for granted. We too easily forget that there are many places in the world where freedom is unknown. Freedom is not a state of being, it is a continual struggle. We must be vigilant about preserving our freedoms from threats, both home and abroad. Our greatest defense from threats at home is education.
I have always taken seriously the job of educating my students about what Memorial Day means to those of us who are standing here today, and to those who have defended and are still defending our freedoms. My reasons for this are many–not least due to the sacrifices of my immediate family members.
America’s armed forces are our front line defense against foreign threats to our freedoms. Members of my family were, as characterized by Tom Brokaw, part of the “Greatest Generation.” My grandparents had five children, four boys, including my father–second son in the family–and one girl, the youngest child. My father’s older brother, was too old for the draft when war was declared in 1941. Dad served in the Army Air Corps from 1942 until late 1945, even though he was already 24 when inducted into the Army. He was fortunate that President [Harry S.] Truman ordered the use of the atomic bomb….[Dad’s] unit was ready to ship to the Pacific had the war with Japan not ended. His younger brother served in the Navy as an officer on a sub-chaser in the Pacific. His unit heard rumor of a bombing raid on Japan, and they witnessed the Enola Gay fly over on its historic mission. The youngest brother joined the Navy after graduating from high school in 1945, but was too late to see any action during the war.
My mother’s only brother served in the armoured divisions of General Patton’s 3rd Army…. He fought from the beaches of Normandy, through France, Belgium, the Battle of the Bulge, and ultimately into Germany, where he helped liberate concentration camps. Uncle John was a dairy farmer….When the war ended, he came home to central Illinois and rarely left his Logan County farm for the next 65 years. I spent many summers helping him milk his cows, make hay, and cultivate his crops. When I was barely ten years old, he taught me how to drive a pick-up with a three-speed manual transmission. He taught me many things about life, but he never talked about the war.
The only thing he ever told me when I was a kid was that he hated the French countryside and loved the English countryside. It was not until the last few months of his life that he wrote a letter to me detailing his experiences through the war. I could not have realized it as a child, but he suffered all of his adult life from PTSD. In his letter, he told me what life was like in a tank corps; what it was like in the concentration camps; how he was the only man of his company to survive the war.
He did not tell me about the many men he saw wounded or killed, because he couldn’t bear to relive those memories. Looking back on it, I wish there had been a way for me to have eased his pain. I’m sure that nothing I could [have said] would have made a difference. I like to think that just my presence, helping him with chores, sharing jokes and stories, watching the birth of a new dairy calf, the every-day activities on a farm helped to make life more bearable for him. Even though he survived the war, it affected him for the remainder of his life.
I have one more story of a family member to relate. My wife Ann’s oldest brother, Nels, graduated from high school in 1968. He entered college with a draft deferment in the fall of that year. He watched as many of his high school classmates entered the military, either through the draft or by volunteering. His conscience would not allow him to live the comfortable life of a college student, while young men his age were fighting a war for our Country. He quit college and entered the Marine Corps. After basic [training], he was assigned for special intelligence training due to his high aptitude scores. He was then sent with a unit to Vietnam.
One night in 1970, my future mother-in-law awoke, dreaming that Nels was crying out for her. It was two days later that the Government car arrived at their farm to inform them that Nels had been killed in action. It was only later the family learned he had been killed by friendly fire. The members of my wife’s family have felt that loss every day for the last 45 years.
These experiences of those close to me have provided me with a great appreciation for the sacrifices of our military personnel and their families.
When I was of age to wear the uniform of our Country, I chose instead to study music. The war in Vietnam had ended. There was no longer a draft. Service in the military did not seem such a good option. I still have my selective service registration card from when I turned 18. How many of you remember the draft lottery? My number was ten! I would certainly have ended up in the war had it continued. I was very happy that the draft had ended 18 months prior to my coming of age.
Once I entered my chosen profession as a music teacher, I found myself training young musicians in the art of band music. One of my many duties in this job included Memorial Day performances. I felt it my duty to educate my students to the importance of the day and what it means to our Country, what it means to them as individuals. I tell them some of the stories I have related today and question them on individuals who have served from their own families. I relate to them how important it is for us as a band to do our very best in this performance. These services mean so much to veterans and to families who have lost a loved one in service to our Country.
Bands have always played an important role in our Country. Some years back, when I served as President of the Music Education Association of Illinois, I had the opportunity to spend a good deal of time with Lt. Colonel Lowell Graham, Commander and Conductor of the United States Air Force Band of Washington D. C. Colonel Graham had some interesting comments to make about the strategic mission of his force. He presented some ideas that I had not thought before. He stated that the Air Force Band is on the front lines of defense for our Country….Every visiting dignitary from a foreign power, when visiting the U. S. is first met at the airport by the Air Force band. The precision and professionalism of the band must represent the power and dignity of not only the Air Force and the other branches of military service, but the Government and people of our Country. Anyone who has witnessed a performance by one of our Washington bands knows that they are among the finest musical ensembles in the world. For me, this was a new way of looking at the power of music. From that point on, I have had a renewed vigor in the way I present Memorial Day to my students.
I will conclude with my opening quote from President Lincoln, “Let us have faith that right makes might; and in that faith let us to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it.” To that end as an educator, I have endeavored to accomplish what President Lincoln suggested.
Thank you, and God bless America!