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Memorial Day 2011
By Oliver North
QUANTICO NATIONAL CEMETERY -- When I was a kid, we called May 30
“Decoration Day.” It was an occasion for Boy Scouts to be up before
dawn and report, in uniform, to the American Legion hall. There, Cub
Scouts would be paired with older Boy Scouts, organized into
detachments of a dozen or so and issued bags of small American flags.
The groups then “deployed” in station wagons and pickup trucks to local
cemeteries and churchyards, where we placed Old Glory on every
veteran’s grave. Later in the morning, there was a parade down Main
Street, led by a color guard, the high-school band and ranks of
veterans from World War I, World War II and the war of the moment,
Korea. The Veterans of Foreign Wars sold red poppies to raise funds for
the disabled. Politicians made speeches, and citizens prayed in public.
It was a solemn annual event that taught us reverence for those who
served and sacrificed for our country. It’s no longer so.
Begun as a local observance in the aftermath of the Civil War, the
first national commemoration took place May 30, 1868, at the direction
of Gen. John A. Logan, commander of the Grand Army of the Republic.
Though his General Order No. 11 specified “strewing with flowers or
otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of
their country during the late rebellion” -- meaning only Union soldiers
-- those who tended the burial sites at Arlington, Va., Gettysburg,
Pa., and Vicksburg, Miss., decided on their own to decorate the biers
of both Union and Confederate war dead.
For five decades, the holiday remained essentially unchanged. But in
1919, as the bodies of young Americans were being returned to the U.S.
from the battlefields of World War I, May 30 became a truly national
event. It persisted as such until 1971, during Vietnam -- the war
America wanted to forget -- when the Uniform Monday Holiday Act passed
by Congress went into effect and turned Memorial Day into a “three-day
weekend.” Since then, it’s become an occasion for appliance, mattress
and auto sales, picnics, barbecues and auto races. Thankfully, there
are some places besides Arlington National Cemetery where Memorial Day
still is observed as a time to honor America’s war dead. Here in
Triangle, Va., the Marines do it right.
Like all Marine Corps installations, every major structure at Quantico
is named for a fallen fellow warrior. On May 13, hundreds of Marines
and their families gathered to dedicate a new staff noncommissioned
officer academy, named in honor of Sgt. Kenneth Conde Jr. Our Fox News’
“War Stories” team was embedded with his unit, 2nd Battalion, 4th
Marines, in Ramadi, Iraq, during April 2004. Shortly after Sgt. Conde
was wounded in action during a gunfight with enemy insurgents, I asked
him why he refused to be medically evacuated. His response: “There is
no other choice for a sergeant in the Marine Corps. You have to lead
your Marines.”
Cpl. Jared McKenzie, one of Conde’s Marines, said of his sergeant: “He
always led from the front and never asked us to do something he
wouldn’t do.” Sgt. Conde was awarded a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart
for his valor and wounds in that engagement. On July 1, just eight days
after his 23rd birthday, he was killed by an improvised explosive
device.
At the dedication ceremony, Conde’s battalion commander, Col. Paul
Kennedy, described the young sergeant as “a courageous, inspiring
leader.” The fallen Marine’s father, Kenneth Conde Sr., said: “I’m
wearing my son’s combat boots. Though they fit, I could never fill
them.”
Just down the road from Conde Hall is another testament to how the
Marines honor America’s heroes. Quantico National Cemetery occupies 725
beautifully landscaped acres donated by the Marines to the Veterans
Administration in 1977. This final resting place for more than 28,000
Americans who served in every branch of our armed forces is closely
linked to some of the most crucial events in U.S. military history. The
fledgling Continental Navy prepared to battle the British fleet here in
1775-76. During the Civil War, it was a blockade point and subsequently
a logistics base during the bloody battle for Fredericksburg. In 1918,
the Marines established a training base and an air station for units
deploying to fight in World War I. Since 1941, Quantico has been the
home of the Marines’ Officer Candidates School and The Basic School for
all Marine officers. Today it is also home to the FBI and DEA academies.
On Memorial Day, an “Avenue of Honor” through Quantico National
Cemetery is adorned with American flags. A “Memorial Pathway” displays
monuments to Edson’s Raiders of WWII fame and recipients of the Purple
Heart; memorials to the 1st, 4th and 6th Marine divisions; and a
monument erected to America’s veterans by the commonwealth of Virginia.
This is also the final resting place for a close friend -- and a
reminder of present-day peril. On Feb. 17, 1988, U.S. Marine Col.
William “Rich” Higgins was kidnapped in Beirut by Iranian-supported
Hezbollah terrorists. They murdered him in July 1990. His remains were
interred here in 1991. Rich Higgins’ gravesite is my Memorial Day
reminder that the streets of heaven really are guarded by U.S. Marines.
So are the streets of America.
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