The audience members who spoke Monday during the open mic portion of the Memorial Day ceremony at Yakima’s Sarg Hubbard Park told all sorts of stories, but one thing they all had in common was “thank you.”
Whether the speakers were veterans themselves or lifelong civilians honoring loved ones who had served, they thanked the crowd full of veterans in attendance. Ed Falter, adjutant for the Yakima/Kittitas Valley detachment of the Marine Corps League 1055 and de facto emcee of Monday’s event, set the tone early.
“Memorial Day is probably one of the most special holidays of the year,” Falter said. “We celebrate Christmas, we celebrate Easter, we celebrate all the good times. But this one’s to honor those who made it possible for us to celebrate all the rest. So, again, we thank you for coming out here today.”
The event was one of several in the Yakima Valley. The Marine Corps League also hosted a ceremony at West Hills Memorial Park in Yakima. And the American Legion Yakima Post 36 and VFW Post 379 hosted one at Tahoma Cemetery in Yakima. In the Lower Valley services were held at Outlook Cemetery and Lower Valley Memorial Gardens.
U.S. Rep. Dan Newhouse spoke at the Lower Valley events. He also Tweeted a Memorial Day message Monday morning.
“On Memorial Day, we gather to celebrate valor and patriotism and to commemorate the lives sacrificed by men and women to protect our nation and the values we all hold so dear,” the Tweet said. “As a nation, let us stand with them today, and every day.”
The Sarg Hubbard ceremony didn’t have a keynote speaker, instead featuring the open mic. That practice began last year, and it worked so well organizers decided to do it again, Falter said.
“It’s important,” he told the crowd, as he asked for their stories. “We can speechify and read all of this stuff. But what’s in your heart is far more important to me than what’s on this paper up here.”
One of the most affecting stories came from Carey Falter, Falter’s daughter-in-law. Her grandfather lost several friends during the Bataan Death March in 1942 during World War II. He likely would have been with them but had delayed joining the military because “the crops were due and his dad was sick.” Had he joined with his friends, he likely wouldn’t have made it home, she said.
She asked him one year at the holidays to tell the story of his best Christmas. He couldn’t think of one, so he told her about his worst. He was a pilot during the war when his friend’s plane was shot down.
“He stayed with him on the radio, as he talked his buddy through crashing and dying,” Carey Falter said. “And he flew his plane back and he landed. ... He said, ‘I’ve never been the same since.’”
John Smith, a member of the Yakama Nation veterans group the Yakama Warriors Association, served as a drummer during the ceremony. He used the open mic to remember several family members who served and closed with a poem he’d written called “Tick Tock Goes the Clock.”
“Time is slipping. The body is dipping. The years have passed us by,” he recited. “Some peace we earn, as the world will
turn. In stillness we will lie.”
Byron Kent, who served during the Vietnam era but was not sent to Vietnam, took the opportunity to “remind everybody that this is not about the veterans serving now or any veteran, this is about those who sacrificed their life for this country; that’s who we’re here to commemorate and honor today.” For him that means an old friend named Robert Webb, who joined the Marines out of high school in 1967 and died right around the time the Tet Offensive launched in early 1968.
“He went out in the field to guard a bridge, because they were getting a lot of infiltration coming down,” Kent said. “A mortar round took him and another Marine out. He’s buried down at Reservation Cemetery. I go by and visit his grave all the time. ... He was a great guy, had a lot of promise and gave his life for this country. I’d just like him remembered.”
He closed, as every speaker did at the event, with gratitude.
“I just want to say thank you to all of you folks, especially the gold star families here that sacrificed one of your loved ones for this country,” Kent said. “Thank you.”
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