Honoring those who gave their today so we can have tomorrow

Amid the sturdy ponderosa pines, fresh flowers, wreaths and miniature flags punctuated the graves of veterans at Mountain View Cemetery in Ronan Monday. Chaplain and Korean War veteran Richard Tobel quietly invoked President Franklin D. Roosevelt and General George Patton.

“I was at the ranch, and it was raining, and it was muddy. We came in, and we heard on the radio that President Roosevelt had died,” he recalled, before reciting the president’s Memorial Day sentiment: “Those who have long enjoyed such privileges as we enjoy forget in time, but many, many have died to allow us those privileges.'"

He also returned to the words of the famous World War II general regarding Memorial Day: “it is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who have died in battle. Rather, we should thank God that such men lived.”

Patton was, Tobel, noted, “very outspoken. He could be rude. He could be brash and abrasive when he thought it was appropriate to be so.”

The general’s words, “have always torn me a little bit one way and a whole bunch the other way, but the more I've studied what he said and read about the man, I know that when he said it, it came from deep within him.”

For those soldiers and civilians assembled Monday at cemeteries in Ronan, Polson and across the state and nation, Memorial Day means far more than the conclusion of a three-day break and the beginning of summer.

“This is not a day to go buy a new washing machine, as the advertisements encourage us to do,” said retired Green Beret colonel Richard Seim, who held the flag during the Ronan ceremony.

Indeed, Memorial Day has its origins in the Civil War, when communities in the North and South would decorate soldiers’ graves with flowers each spring. In 1868, Major General John A. Logan, head of an organization of Union veterans called the Grand Army of the Republic, issued a proclamation called the Memorial Day Act. It established a Decoration Day on May 30 for the nation to remember its war dead and decorate their graves with flowers.

At the close of the ceremony, Mission Valley Honor Guard Commander Glen Sharbono reminded the small crowd assembled by the grave of Medal of Honor recipient Laverne Parrish of the young man’s heroic actions during World War II. While serving in the Philippines, the young medic braved fierce fire from Japanese forces in order to tend 37 wounded men, and bring several to safety before suffering mortal injuries from mortar fire.

“We honor the indomitable spirit, intrepidity, and gallantry of Technician Parish, who saved many lives at the cost of his own,” Sharbono said. “He did this all at 19 years of age.”

After a rifle salute and Taps, played by Tom Normandeau, the assembled veterans headed for Polson for a second procession and memorial ceremony at Lake View Cemetery.

    The Honor Guard fired three volleys to honor the fallen during the Memorial Day observance at Mountain View Cemetery in Ronan. (Kristi Niemeyer/Leader)
  

    A variety of vehicles made their way down the street at Polson's Memorial Day parade with a couple dogs even riding along. (Kaleb Unger/Leader)
  

    Flag were presented as watchers stood in respect at Monday's Memorial Day parade. (Kaleb Unger/Leader)