Memorial Day: Tears, Honor for Valor and Service

Ask Darryl Raymond, 83, why Memorial Day is important and he chokes up."I can't talk about it," the Belleville man said Monday afternoon. Not because of his own experience — Raymond said he enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1946 and did not see combat — but because he is in awe of others' valor.

He was among nearly 300 people at BeckRidge Chorale's afternoon performance of Because of the Brave at the Village Theater at Cherry Hill. The singers' performances alternated with brief videos on the history of Memorial Day and were somber, said volunteer usher Dorothy Grant, admitting she shed tears several times during the show.

"People are forgetting what Memorial Day is about," said Grant, standing next to her husband Jack — he is a veteran, but shrugs off his time in the Army "because I was just driving big trucks around Germany during the Cold War."The Grants, who live in Plymouth Township spent their morning at the Plymouth's Memorial Day parade before heading to volunteer in Canton.

Dorothy Grant said she and Jack had ushered last year's concert, "where so many people showed up, we had to turn them away." They decided to volunteer for one of this year's two shows as a way of honoring those who made died while serving in the military. The two BeckRidge Chorale shows drew about 700 in total. Earlier today, the Canton Veterans Memorial Association and the Plymouth-based Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 528's color guard, among others, held a ceremony at the Canton Veterans Memorial at Heritage Park, where about 100 people came to pay tribute.

Organizer John Spencer said he was pleased with the turnout. Father Patrick Casey led the crowd in The Star Spangled Banner, during which some veterans saluted and many in the crowd put their hands over their hearts. Then the crowd recited the Pledge of Allegiance.

Casey also offered the prayer, which included asking God for the will to "honor the dead with the forgiveness of peacemaking" and the living with The crowd heard a reading of the poem in tribute to a Vietnam Vetern by his son, Freedom Isn't Free and In Flanders Field written by a World War I Canadian Army officer.

Russ Cullen, a U.S. Marine on active duty from 1942 through 1946, said he did reconnaissance work, photographing sites in the South Pacific during World War II. But he, too, choked up when asked about Memorial Day's significance. Now 88, Cullen said, "I like to remember all the men and women that served in the service in a time of need, especially those that gave up their lives for their county."

Then he paused and added, "I love my country. I wish we didn't have to have any more wars. I never shot a gun before I got into the Marine Corps and I've never shot a gun since I got out."

He said he would rather live in a world like the one before him. Sweeping his gaze around the Canton Veterans Memorial, at the dozens of people socializing before the ceremony started and the grass and trees and all, he said, "that the Lord has made. We should be a peaceful people."