Patricia Ey places a rose at the base of the Vietnam Memorial in honor of a fallen soldier during Monday’s Memorial Day service at Iris Park.
JERRY McBRIDE/Durango Herald
Michael Rodri and his wife, Kristy, share a solemn moment during the Memorial Day service at the Greenmount Veterans Memorial at Greenmount Cemetery.
JERRY McBRIDE/Durango Herald
Butch Crim salutes during the Memorial Day service at the Greenmount Veterans Memorial at Greenmount Cemetery.
JERRY McBRIDE/Durango Herald
Craig McCormack, a veterans advocate with Volunteers of America, says a few words during the Memorial Day service at the Greenmount Veterans Memorial at Greenmount Cemetery on Monday.
JERRY McBRIDE/Durango Herald
Memorial Day is a day that families make their way to Greenmount Cemetery to place flowers and freshen up headstones.JERRY McBRIDE/Durango Herald
Memorial Day Service at the Vietnam Memorial in Iris Park on Monday morning.JERRY McBRIDE/Durango Herald
Memorial Day service at the Greenmount Veterans Memorial at Greenmount Cemetery was held under a mostly blue sky and warm temperatures.JERRY McBRIDE/Durango Herald
Buck Nevils with the Honor Guard, stands with the color guard at the Greenmount Veterans Memorial at Greenmount Cemetery during Monday’s Memorial Service.JERRY McBRIDE/Durango Herald
Cadence Klatt, 3, places a flower on a grave at Greenmount Cemetery on Monday.JERRY McBRIDE/Durango Herald
The color guard carries flags into the Greenmount Veterans Memorial at Greenmount Cemetery at the start of Monday’s Memorial Service.JERRY McBRIDE/Durango Herald
Amanda Lorenzini holds her son Nicholas, 3, while he and his sister Bella, 4, plug their ears as the honor guard fires their salute at the Greenmount Veterans Memorial at Greenmount Cemetery during Memorial day Services on Monday. Bella and Nicholas are also the children of Sam Lorenzini.JERRY McBRIDE/Durango Herald
Jim Mooney salutes the the Vietnam Memorial after placing a rose in front of it in honor of a fallen soldier during Monday’s Memorial Day Service at Iris Park.JERRY McBRIDE/Durango Herald
Memorial Day is a day that families make their way to Greenmount Cemetery to place flowers and freshen up headstones.JERRY McBRIDE/Durango Herald
Michael Rodri and his wife Kristy, share a moment during the Memorial Day Service at the Greenmount Veterans Memorial at Greenmount Cemetery on Monday.JERRY McBRIDE/Durango Herald
Memorial Day service at the Greenmount Veterans Memorial at Greenmount Cemetery was held under mostly a blue sky and warm temperatures.JERRY McBRIDE/Durango Herald
Craig McCormack, a veterans advocate with Volunteers of America, says a few words during the Memorial Day Service at the Greenmount Veterans Memorial at Greenmount Cemetery on Monday.JERRY McBRIDE/Durango Herald
Patricia Ey, lays a rose at the base of the Vietnam Memorial in honor of a fallen soldier during Monday’s Memorial Day Service at Iris Park.JERRY McBRIDE/Durango Herald
Butch Crim salutes during the Memorial Day Service at the Greenmount Veterans Memorial at Greenmount Cemetery on Monday.JERRY McBRIDE/Durango Herald
After firing a salute Byron Dare with the honor guard stands during taps at the Vietnam Memorial in Iris Park during the Memorial Day Service on Monday.JERRY McBRIDE/Durango Herald
Tony Madril, left, commander of American Legion Post No. 28, and Fred Riedinger, Chaplin at the Veterans of Foreign Wars post in Durango, drop a wreath off of the 9th Street bridge into the Animas River in memory of service members who have died at sea following the Memorial Day Service at the Greenmount Cemetery on Monday.JERRY McBRIDE/Durango Herald
When the Durango Vietnam Veterans Memorial was built in 1982, Durango resident Julie Cooley said, the people who gathered there every Memorial Day were mostly friends and families of Vietnam soldiers.
“It used to be mostly our generation that would come, but now it has expanded to older and younger generations,” said Cooley, who attends the memorial event every year.
On Monday morning, Cooley’s observation held true as about 100 people – from toddlers to gray-haired veterans – gathered around the Vietnam Veterans Memorial at Iris Park for the traditional Memorial Day Rose Roll Call of Colorado Heroes.
Thirty-five people held roses with the names of Colorado residents who have been killed in the war in Afghanistan. They laid the flowers at the base of the memorial as each soldier’s name was called.
Many of those carrying roses were veterans. John Ferguson, a former first sergeant in the U.S. Army, held a rose for Sgt. Jason Smith, a Colorado Springs resident who was killed Nov. 19, 2010.
Ferguson was one of many local residents whose life has been affected by war.
“There are 10,000 interesting stories around here,” Ferguson said.
Pauline and Rex Howard had a sweet story of how, 67 years ago, war brought them together. Rex Howard was serving in the Navy during World War II, and was based in San Pedro, Calif. He met Pauline during a return visit. Three weeks after their first date, he asked her to marry him. The two tied the knot a few days after Howard was discharged in late 1945.
Sometimes people take Memorial Day events casually and don’t realize how much work is put into organizing them, Pauline Howard said. Making the trip from their Bayfield home to Durango isn’t easy, but the couple does it to show their support, she said.
“As long as we’re able, we certainly will come,” she said.
The couple was among the crowd at a second Memorial Day gathering at Greenmount Cemetery’s Veterans Memorial. Representatives from the American Legion Post No. 28, the Knights of Columbus Colorado Council No. 1408, the Volunteers of America, the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post No. 4031, the Disabled American Veterans and the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War spoke in honor of fallen service members.
This is the nation’s 145th Memorial Day ceremony, Jerry Crawford, a past department commander with the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, told the audience. Maj. Gen. John A. Logan, the head of an organization of Union veterans, established Decoration Day on May 30, 1868, three years after the Civil War ended. The day was dedicated to commemorating the nation’s fallen soldiers by decorating their graves with flowers. More than a century later in 1971, Memorial Day was declared a national holiday by an act of Congress.
The day brings a mix of emotions, said Joe Perino, the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post Quartermaster as he introduced the ceremony.
“Memorial Day, with its sad and sacred memories, has come again,” he told a silent crowd.
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