DELAND — Richard Schuler, a Korean War veteran, sat quietly and saluted as DeLand Firefighter Morgan Fambrough sang the national anthem at the Memorial Day ceremony at Bill Dreggors Park May 25.
The 95-year-old DeLeon Springs man paused during a moment of silence to remember two friends who died in the Korean War, he said.
The Korean War, an armed conflict that started June 25, 1950, and ended July 27, 1953, was fought on the Korean Peninsula between North Korea, which had the backing of China and Russia, and South Korea, with the support of the United Nations led by the United States, according to Britannica.com.
Schuler was 24 years old when he was deployed to South Korea where he was a pilot, and his main duty involved “air and intercept,” he said.
“Whenever there was an unidentified aircraft detected, we would scramble, and if it was a friendly airplane, we would help them get to base,” Schuler recalled. “A couple of my friends died there in Korea.”
DeLand post commander: 105 years of remembering America’s fallen soldiers
The Memorial Day remembrance at the Veterans Pavilion was organized by the American Legion Orange Baker Post 187, American Legion Adam Quinn Post 6, and the Military Officers Association of America.
The groups have continued the more-than-100-year tradition of honoring the men and women who died in wars preserving the freedom of people in the United States, said Mel Rollins, Commander of American Legion Adam Quinn Post 6.
“This celebration marks 105 years that this park (Bill Dreggors Park) is being involved in a veterans’ Memorial Day and Veterans Day ceremonies. So, it’s a quite a history,” Rollins said.
And the remembrance brought a crowd together and honored America’s war dead with speeches, prayer, bagpipe music, and a 21-gun salute.
How did Memorial Day begin?
Memorial Day started with the loving act of a Southern mother who placed flowers on the graves of two Union soldiers, said William Bradley, senior pastor at New Hope Church in Deltona.
Bradley was the ceremony’s keynote speaker.
He recounted that in April 1863, a mother in Columbus, Mississippi, went to place flowers on the graves of her two sons who died defending the South in the American Civil War. After decorating her sons’ graves, the mother went to two mounds of dirt and placed flowers on them, as well, Bradley said.
Bradley said the mother’s friends shouted to her, saying, “What are you doing, those are the graves of two Union soldiers.”
“And the mother said, ‘I know, but I also know somewhere in the North a mother, a wife, a child mourns theirs just as we mourn ours,” Bradley said the mother told her friends. “This loving deed set in motion the celebration which has become known as Memorial Day.”
Over the years, what started as visit to two Union soldiers’ graves in 1863 by a mother in Mississippi, expanded to include military men and women who have died in all wars in the service of the United States, Bradley said.
DeLand Memorial Day speakers urge younger generation to remember
Invited guests, which included the mayor of DeLand, spoke of how it is important for the younger generation to remember those who died in wars to preserve their freedoms, and to follow their example.
“Our ceremony began with a reminder that today is not about celebration. However this is the year 2026 and later this year there will be plenty of opportunities for celebrations,” said DeLand Mayor Christopher Cloudman.
Cloudman reminded those present at the Memorial Day ceremony that in July, the country will celebrate its 250th birthday, and the city of DeLand will have its 150th anniversary at the end if the year.
Cloudman shared some of DeLand’s history to highlight the importance of Memorial Day, saying that those who stood up and joined the Continental Army and colonial militia in the Revolutionary War, and other military servicemen who followed and gave their lives to preserve freedom, gave Americans the opportunity to celebrate and should be honored and remembered.
“Today we are here to remember and give gratitude to those who laid down their lives so that we could have these freedoms,” Cloudman said. “We give our thanks to those who made it possible for us to be here today.”
Commander: Memorial Day is not ‘national hot dog day’
Rollins paid tribute to mothers, wives, children and families who lost loved ones from WW1 to present day conflicts.
The memories of war linger in the lives of families and fellow soldiers who returned, but their friends did not, Rollins said.
“These mothers, children, they just don’t come out on a day like today,” Rollins said. “Those families breathe it every day, every birthday, every anniversary.”
And the service men and women who came back live with the memories of the battlefield experiences that took some of their friends, he said.
“So, let’s remember, this is not national hot dog day, and let’s carry on remembering throughout the years.”
Like Rollins, Schuler also had a message for the youth about Memorial Day.
“I would say it’s a good thing for you and not only for your country,” Schuler said. “Remembering those who stood up and died for us is something our young people should know about.”
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: ‘Memorial Day isn’t national hot dog day.’ Honoring the fallen
Reporting by Patricio G. Balona, Daytona Beach News-Journal / The Daytona Beach News-Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
