May 20, 2008 3 min read

Uniontown United Veterans Association is conducting a Memorial Day program on the Avenue of Flags at Sylvan Heights Cemetery on North Gallatin Avenue Extension in North Union Township at 10 a.m. Monday.

Jim Clark, chaplain of the United Veterans Association, will open the program with the invocation. The Albert Gallatin High School Army Junior ROTC Color Guard will post the colors.

Uniontown Mayor Ed Fike will give the welcoming address. The Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 47 Band will play the national anthem and patriotic music.

Members of the United Veterans Association will have the massing of the various Post standards and provide the firing squad. A Civil War re-enactor will read Logan’s General Order 11 and Leo Kaputa will recite the Gettysburg Address.

Debbie Hull, representing the Gold Star Mothers, will place a wreath in remembrance and honor of the sacrifices of mothers and wives who have lost their children and spouses in service to their country.

Veterans will dress in uniforms from various wars and perform a ritual in memory of those who died serving the country.

Beatrice Dyer will sing “My Buddy.”

Veterans association Cmdr. Louis Giachetti is the master of ceremonies.

“We hope many citizens of Uniontown and surrounding communities will join us in remembering those who died for our freedom,” said James R. Smith, program chairman and past northeast regional president of the Fleet Reserve Association. “We are committed to keeping the memory of their sacrifice alive for generations to come.”

Gen. John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, proclaimed Memorial Day on May 5, 1868. It was first observed on May 30, 1868, when flowers were placed on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va.

Following the program at Sylvan Heights Cemetery, VFW Post 47 in Uniontown will conduct a memorial service at the doughboy monument in the George C. Marshal Memorial Plaza at Five Corners West around 11:30 a.m.

Pete Porreca, commander of VFW Post 47 and the master of ceremonies, said the post has been conducting Memorial Day services at the doughboy statue, a memorial honoring World War I veterans, since around 1950.

He said post members raised money to have the monument made in the mid-1930s.

“We put that up in 1935 or ’36. We bought the doughboy. It was with penny donations right after the (Great) Depression. It was tough,” Porreca said.

He said his father, a World War I veteran, used to salute the statue every day.

The Memorial Day service is meant to honor American veterans from all wars, Porreca said.

Post members will place a wreath, flowers and a flag at the monument.

Senior vice commander Paul Blycheck, junior vice commander Julius Francis, quartermaster Mike Kodric, officer of the day Tom Stefancin and post auxiliary member Jean Stefancin will participate in the flower presentation.

Post buglers Sandy Behanna and Julie Harvey will play taps and the echo, and the post band will play hymns, marches and the Star-Spangled Banner.

Louis Fratrich, commander of the Catholic War Veterans Club of Uniontown, will lead the firing squad from the United War Veterans.

Fayco Rentals of Uniontown is donating the public address system for the service.

Porreca said the post needs volunteers to help place markers and flags on the graves of about 3,000 veterans in Sylvan Heights on May 21. The work starts at 9:30 a.m.

He also said the post will be selling poppies at local grocery stores on May 23 and 24 to raise money for the Disabled American Veterans.