Catskill honors soldiers
The Daily Mail
May 25, 2009, online

CATSKILL - Military servicemen and women who have given their lives were honored in Catskill Sunday with a parade up Main Street and a ceremony in front of the Greene County Office Building.

Members of the Catskill Fire Department and fire and hose companies from Leeds, Kiskatom and Palenville marched along with religious groups and civil organizations under a threatening gray sky from Catskill High School across the Uncle Sam Bridge and onto Main Street.

Pipe Major John Gallagher and his Greene County pipe band, members of the Catskill High School band and the Catskill Community Center Continental Cadets Drum and Bugle Corps provided music to spectators along the parade route.

The parade also featured a float depicting a field of white crosses and the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington National Cemetery.

During the memorial ceremony after the parade, Commanding Sgt. Major Martin Wells of the Military Academy at West Point addressed the audience, saying that military servicemen and servicewomen come from every Catskill across the United States.

He asked the audience to remember to thank those individuals who have selflessly served the country and asked the audience to reflect on the many trials and tribulations the American flag has seen.

“We are not a perfect nation,” he said, “but there is no place like the United States of America.”

The flag was born on June 14, 1777, he said, weathered the winter at Valley Forge, P.A. and was present at the Battle of Yorktown at the end of the American Revolution.

The flag survived the Civil War and flew throughout the costly World War I and World War II and battles in Korea.

The flag was burned by Americans protesting fighting in Vietnam, Wells said.

“But, I persevered, I stood strong and went on to stand as a symbol of strength and freedom for people in foreign lands and here,” Wells said, speaking as the flag.

The flag has flown in combat zones such as Granada, Panama and Kuwait, he said, and more recently in Somalia, Iraq and Afghanistan.

And, Wells said, the flag was lifted from the rubble of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11.

Brave patriots who have served in the American armed forces defending freedom and democracy have helped the flag survive more than two centuries of conflicts, he said.

More than 2.7 million Americans have lost their lives defending the principles and freedoms upon which the country had been founded, he said.

“I have had a lot of friends along the way who paid the ultimate price and given of themselves just so I can live and stand as a symbol for the rest of the world,” Wells said, speaking as the flag. “And for that, I am eternally grateful.”

The ceremony also features prayers spoken by Fred Van Loan as well as patriotic poems read by Catskill Central School District Superintendent Kathleen Farrell and Greene County Legislator Ray Brooks (R-Athens).

Brooks also led members of Athens American Legion T.G.M. Post 187 who stood as an honor guard throughout the parade and ceremony.

The event was organized by a committee led by Catskill Fire Department’s Harold Rivenburgh. Catskill Village President Vincent Seeley served as master of ceremonies. Peter Margolius served as the parade’s Grand Marshall, with Robert Heisinger as Honorary Grand Marshall.

Other dignitaries in attendance included Catskill village and town officials, county legislators representing Catskill and state Assemblyman Peter Lopez (R-Schoharie).

The ceremony concluded as light rain began to fall with the firing of Catskill’s cannon and the playing of taps by a lone trumpeter.