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LAWRENCE: Memorial marchers

By Lea Kahn, Staff Writer
   Lawrence Township’s annual Memorial Day parade may have been held one week earlier than usual on Saturday, but it was no less poignant and meaningful for those who watched the parade and attended the annual service afterwards.
   Children and their parents lined the parade route on Princeton Pike, Darrah Lane and Birchwood Knoll Saturday morning, waiting patiently for the Lawrence Township Police Department patrol car — blue and red lights flashing — that signified the start of the parade.
   The children were not disappointed, shouting out, “The parade, the parade,” as the first of the parade participants turned the corner from Darrah Lane onto Birchwood Knoll, led by Chief of Police Daniel Posluszny in his Police Department vehicle.
   Dressed in their military white uniforms, a color guard of U.S. Navy sailors marched down the street. They were followed by several military vehicles, including HUMVEEs. Political figures, including Mercer County Clerk Paula Sollami-Covello and Mercer County Surrogate Diane Gerofsky, followed.
   Mayor Jim Kownacki and Township Council members Cathleen Lewis, David Maffei and Greg Puliti stepped briskly down the street, waving to spectators. The Bushwackers Drum and Bugle Corps provided music for the parade.
   Youth groups, from Boy Scout and Girl Scout troops to those representing the Lawrence Township public school district, marched down the middle of the street. At the other end of the spectrum, the Lawrence Township Office on Aging was represented.
   Once the marchers passed the reviewing stand on the corner of Birchwood Knoll and Oaklyn Terrace, participants and spectators made their way over to Veterans Park for the annual ceremony honoring the soldiers, sailors and airmen who died in battle.
   Cmdr. Andrew Tunnard (U.S. Navy Reserve) welcomed the crowd, and acknowledged parade grand marshal Paul Mitnaul. He was a member of the Tuskegee Airmen, the all-black unit of aviators in the U.S. Army Air Corps. The Lawrence Township resident was a lieutenant.
   Memorial Day is the time for Americans to honor the soldiers, sailors and airmen who gave their lives for the ideals that Americans cherish, Cmdr. Tunnard said. He noted that more than 1 million servicemen and servicewomen have died in wars and conflicts since 1775, and “each person who died was a loved one cherished by family and friends. Each was a loss to the community and the nation.
   Cmdr. Tunnard launched into an explanation of the origins of Memorial Day, which had its beginnings during the Civil War. Grieving family members cleared Confederate soldiers’ graves in a cemetery in Columbus, Mo., placing flowers on them, he said.
   The women noticed the nearby graves of Union soldiers, which had been similarly neglected. They decided to clean up the graves and laid flowers on them also, in acknowledgement that the Union soldiers left behind families in faraway communities that loved them, too, he said.
   The tradition of a Decoration Day for the graves of fallen soldiers spread, Cmdr. Tunnard said. On May 5, 1866, a Waterloo, N.Y., shopkeeper decided to close his drugstore and suggested that all the other shops in town should be closed for a day to honor all the soldiers who died during the Civil War.
   Memorial Day became institutionalized in 1882, when it became a day set aside to remember and honor the sacrifice of those who died in all of the United States’ wars, he said. Memorial Day ceremonies were held at cemeteries across the country.
   Following the invocation, the reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance and the singing of the National Anthem, Cmdr. Tunnard introduced Mayor Jim Kownacki, who also acknowledged the sacrifices of the American military service members.
   ”We come here to remember all those brave men and women who sacrificed their lives or their own well-being so we have the opportunity to stand here and say, ‘Thank you,’” Mayor Kownacki said. “Those two small words that mean more than we can image to these individuals. The usual response is a nod, a handshake or just a smile. There are always two more words — ‘You’re welcome’ — that comes from the heart of our all of our military veterans.”
   ”But in reality, we all should be replying ‘You’re welcome.’ You are welcomed back into the arms of your family, to the job that you left to defend our nation, a chance once again to dream and to realize your future. We all should be ready to give them a hand and pledge our ‘thank you’ so we may continue to live in harmony,” Mayor Kownacki said.
   Before turning over the event to the guest speaker, Col. James F. Stenson (U.S. Army), Cmdr. Tunnard recognized the winners of the annual Memorial Day essay contest. The first-place winner was sixth-grader Catherine Kildea. The second place award went to sixth-grader Ryan Morris, and the third place honor went to Dylan Watt, who is in the fourth grade. All are students at Lawrence Intermediate School.
   Then, Col. Stenson took the podium. He is the commander of the 254th Regiment, based in Sea Girt, and also serves as the director of information systems for the New Jersey Army National Guard. He is a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y.
   Quoting writer and philosopher Joseph Campbell, who said that “a hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself,” Col. Stenson said that’s the best description of the ordinary men and women who gave their lives on battlefields “from the beaches of Normandy to the mountains of Afghanistan to protect the freedoms we enjoy as Americans.”
   ”Today is the day we remember the heroes,” Col. Stenson said.
   Although the custom of placing flowers on the graves of every Union and Confederate soldier at Arlington National Cemetery began after the Civil War, the practice of decorating the graves of fallen soldiers with flags on Memorial Day at Arlington started after World War II, he said.
   ”On Memorial Day, flags will be placed on the graves of those heroes at Arlington, as well as on the graves of thousands of other soldiers, airmen, sailors and Marines who made the ultimate sacrifice in places with names most Americans remember, such as Korea and Vietnam, and in other places not always well remembered yet no less important,” Col. Stenson said.
   Flags will be placed on the graves of the nation’s newest heroes — the young men and women who volunteered to serve after Sept. 11, 2001 and who also lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan, he said. Nine of those flags will be placed on the graves of young men from New Jersey who have died “since we last gathered to celebrate Memorial Day,” he said.
   Col. Stenson spoke of Marine Staff Sgt. Oscar Canon, who died earlier this year of injuries he suffered in Iraq in 2004. He underwent years of painful rehabilitation and dozens of surgeries to achieve his goal of returning to active duty as a Marine.
   ”Sgt. Canon died on Feb. 14 from complications from what he hoped would be his final surgery,” Col. Stenson said. “He could have chosen to have his leg amputated and with it, the elimination of any further harm. But losing the leg would have ended his (military) service. And for Sgt. Canon, the desire to serve our nation trumped other considerations.”
   Then, there was Jorge Oliveira, who was a staff sergeant in the New Jersey Army National Guard and who died in Afghanistan in October, Col. Stenson said. He immigrated to the United States from Portugal as a child and settled in Newark. He became an Essex County sheriff’s officer.
   ”He told people he loved working in law enforcement because it allowed him to serve as a role model for young people. He loved being a soldier because it allowed him to repay a country that had given him so much,” Col. Stenson said.
   All of these fallen heroes share the common bond of selfless service with the young men and women in uniform on this very day, keeping watch and protecting the United States from a determined enemy that fears freedom and despises the American way of life, he said.
   ”It is fitting that the time we have set aside to remember the heroes falls at the end of spring, when the earth is full of new life, new beginnings and hope,” Col. Stenson said. “By remembering these heroes, we ensure that their memories will never die. Today is the day we remember the heroes.”
   And finally, representatives of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 3022, American Legion Post 414 and the 112th Field Artillery Association read off the names of members who had died during the past 12 months.
   Cmdr. Tunnard paid special recognition to the late James J. Hewitt, a Pearl Harbor survivor and member of the VFW and American Legion posts. Mr. Hewitt, who was a retired Lawrence Township police detective and who lived most of his life in Lawrence, died earlier this month.
   ”Jim never missed a Memorial Day ceremony,” Cmdr. Tunnard said. “As World War II gradually fades from our national memory, the ranks of those who served also fades. Jim Hewitt perpetuated much of the history of those turbulent times, and he has left a legacy. He will be missed and we offer one final salute for all he has done.”