Memorial Day is both the start of summer and a weekend to honor fallen service men and women. Heartfelt offerings begin Friday with the March to the Sea tradition by Island schoolchildren.
Forced indoors by inclement weather, but determined to commemorate those who gave their lives in service to their country, Island veterans gathered to observe Memorial Day.
In an annual Memorial Day tradition, students in Chilmark, Tisbury and Edgartown will carry flowers to the sea on Friday, May 27 to commemorate Memorial Day.
At a ceremony Monday, Paul J. Brawley, a commander in the United States Navy Reserve, quoted Gen. Douglas MacArthur: “The soldier above all other people prays for peace, for he must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war.”
Not long after sunrise, volunteers gathered in Oak Grove Cemetery in Vineyard Haven to help set up the Avenue of the Flags, commemorating those who served. Community members young and old helped prepare this final leg of the Memorial Day parade.
Veterans, law enforcement officials, Coast Guard members and Boy Scouts marched to the beat of a drum and patriotic music during the annual Memorial Day parade Monday. Plus happy birthday wishes were in order for veterans agent Jo Ann Murphy.
There was never a fairer Memorial Day than Monday when Vineyard Haven stirred to music now martial, now solemn on the clear air, and stood with bared head to do reverence to veterans of old wars and of new.
Traditions will be kept this Memorial Day weekend as the Vineyard honors veterans and celebrates the coming summer. As in years past, events begin Friday with students at the Tisbury and Edgartown schools marching to the sea to lay flowers in the water.
