Connellsville mayor speaks at Memorial Day services
CONNELLSVILLE – Connellsville’s mayor reflected Monday on the importance paying tribute to those who died in past wars, honoring those who fell during Sept. 11’s terrorist attacks and remembering Americans who are now waging war in Afghanistan. “On this day last year we were a nation at peace,” said Mayor Judy Reed, who served as guest speaker for Connellsville’s annual Memorial Day services at the war memorial near Route 119. “Today, we are a nation at war.”
Just as the ultimate act of terrorism occurred in Flight 93, which flew over Connellsville on Sept. 11, Reed said the city has played an important role in the development and direction of the nation.
Reed touched on the number of causalities from Connellsville during World War II, pointing out how those who died then are no different from the millions of men and women who have answered the call to arms throughout American history.
Reed said the nation has been forced to add 3,000 more names to the list of the honored dead this year. While some were in the armed forces, Reed said the remainder served on the front lines in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks or died in the days following.
“It is fitting that as we remember the military men and women who died in service to America we also remember as well the first casualties of the war on terrorism,” said Reed.
Reed listed the casualties as the 23 police officers, 37 port authority police officers and 343 firefighters who gave their lives at New York’s World Trade Center.
“They gave their all in service to their country as surely as it they had been on the front lines of Afghanistan.
Again, said Reed, young Americans wearing the uniforms of the nation’s armed forces are fighting in a war without borders and without clearly identified enemies.
While some of those service men and women have already given their lives for their nation, Reed recalled how some were killed shortly after the nation went to war, referring to 25-year-old Jeanette L. Winters, a U.S. Marine sergeant, and Nathan Ross Chapman, 31, an Army sergeant first class.
“We can be thankful that we are a nation that does not forget and that we are a people who remembers and honors the Nates and Jeanettes, who are ready to step up to the plate, don the uniform and battle the enemies of the United States, wherever and whenever they threaten,” Reed said.
As Reed asked those attending the Memorial Day service to never forget the nation’s fallen soldiers, she also asked them to tell their children and grandchildren about the “Nates'” and “Jeanettes'” who died throughout history to preserve “our way of life.”
“We are engaged in a great war against evil and it will not be easily or quickly won,” Reed said.
In honoring the men and women who have died for their country and those who are fighting for it, Reed concluded with “God Bless America.”
While Monday’s service and parade are a tradition for the majority of people who attended, Charles and Barbara Bryner of Connellsville agreed it was especially important this year.
“In other years you realize, but it just comes to heart this year with all of those boys over there,” said Barbara Bryner.
Ralph Lininger of Mill Run said he always attends the city’s Memorial Day service. Lininger, who is a retired railroad worker, said, although he was enlisted in the National Guard, he was deferred from going to war because of his job.
However, Lininger’s grandson, Mark Baker III of Florida, could be next in line to be deployed overseas. Baker is a nurse serving the U.S. Navy.