From the youngest cub scouts to the oldest veterans, the Island community turned out Monday morning to honor the fallen at the annual Memorial Day Parade.
Spectators cheered as the group made their way from the American Legion Post 257 in Vineyard Haven to Oak Grove Cemetery.
At the cemetery the flag was lowered to half mast and Natalie Wood opened the ceremony by singing the national anthem.
Rev. Stephen Harding, the Vineyard Haven Fire Department’s chaplain, led the audience in prayer before Senior Chief Nicholas Grim, officer in charge of the US Coast Guard’s Station Menemsha, spoke about the meaning of the holiday.
“While it is a day of celebration, above all, today is a day of remembrance. Remembrance for those who paid the ultimate sacrifice,” Chief Grim said. “This is not my day. This is not your day. This is not our day. This is their day.”
Former seaman’s apprentice Tim Stobie commemorated the memory of his nephew, Master Sgt. Eden M. Pearl, who died while serving in Afghanistan.
“I had a nephew in the marine corps...who got hit with an IED in Afghanistan. He was a great kid,” Mr. Stobie said. “He ended his career in a MARSOC [Marine Forces Special Operations Command] unit, the toughest of the tough.”
After wreaths were laid and Taps performed, the parade returned to the American Legion hall, passing by the 450 flags that had been planted in the cemetery earlier in the day.
Creating an avenue of flags at Oak Grove Cemetery is a 30-year-old Memorial Day tradition. According to Carrie Welch, president of the Ladies Auxiliary, each flag represents either a service member from the Island or an Island family who is related to a service member.
Lucy Young, a retired Navy captain, traveled from Falmouth to place a flag on the grave of World War II veteran Nancy Harkness Love, who flew with the Women’s Airforce Service Pilots (WASP). In 1948, she was granted the title Lieutenant Colonel in the air force reserve.
“She was a pioneer pilot who flew for the WASP [Women Airforce Service Pilots]...Every year I come here and put a flag on her grave,” Captain Young said. “She was ahead of her time...She flew different military aircraft and showed that it could be done.”
Captain Young served as a naval aviator, joining up just a few years after women were permitted in the 1970s to serve in such roles.
Kenneth Ivory grew up on the Island and served as a member of the Coast Guard in Woods Hole and later at Station Menemsha Station. He said he was moved to march out of respect for other veterans on the Island, including his Little League coach and one of his first bosses.
“I did it to show respect to them...because they were really in the big one, World War Two, Korea...I technically served during the Vietnam War, but I didn’t have to go to Vietnam.”
Mr. Ivory added that being able to commemorate the holiday on a local level was especially poignant.
“When we put up the flags in the morning, I looked down at all these stones, I knew half of them,” Mr. Ivory said.
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