Greater Philadelphia region honors fallen vets on Memorial Day

PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Despite the gloomy weather, many Memorial Day parades and ceremonies carried on throughout the greater Philadelphia region on Monday.

Doylestown holds the crown for the longest continuously running Memorial Day parade in the country. Monday’s 158th annual event started with a flag-raising ceremony at Central Bucks High School West, followed by the parade.

Listen below to how other towns honored veterans this Memorial Day.

READ MORE: The origins of Memorial Day and how it has evolved

Cherry Hill reflects

There was a solemn Memorial Day service in Cherry Hill. The ceremony’s keynote speaker was retired Navy Adm. Karen Flaherty-Oxler, director of Philadelphia’s VA Medical Center. She said that since our nation was founded, 1.3 million people have died in wars defending our rights and liberties.

“That’s the size of Dallas, Texas,” she said. “So when we think about that and we think about being able to be here today to speak about them, speak about the promises of what’s ahead, we should remember them.”

Flaherty-Oxler said Americans should support the nation’s living veterans by asking them to tell their stories — and asking what would make their lives better. It’s especially necessary, she said, in a year where we celebrate the country’s 250th anniversary.

The indoor ceremony came to a brief halt when 102-year-old World War II veteran May Brill took a tumble off the foot-high riser when her folding chair gave way. But she was helped up, and Mayor David Fleisher said she insisted on staying.

“She said, ‘I’m 102 — it’s going to take more than that,’” Felischer said.

A hidden monument, 'celebrated in its fullest'

Mayor Cherelle Parker celebrated Memorial Day at an African American veterans monument that had been hidden for 60 years before being relocated to Logan Square.

Veterans gathered at the All Wars Memorial to Colored Soldiers and Sailors, dedicated in 1934 as a gesture of inclusion that was soon replaced with the racism more typical of the time, and it was placed in a remote part of Fairmount Park.

“For sixty years, it stayed behind Memorial Hall. No neighborhood wanted it,” said Michael Roepel, who led the committee to restore and relocate the memorial, which succeeded in 1994.

Parker said the memorial’s history was an important lesson for this year’s semiquincentennial.

“That it is celebrated in its fullness, making sure that everyone, no matter their race, their class, their religion, their sexual orientation or identity, if they had a role in serving our great nation, they all have a right to be celebrated.”

Weather cancels Delco parade

Due to inclement weather, the annual Memorial Day parade in Media, Delaware County, was canceled, but that did not stop folks from coming out and paying their respects.

“It’s unfortunate that we’re not having a parade today, but the spirit and the remembrance will continue on,” said Pennsylvania Army National Guard Brig. Gen. Frank McGovern.

He was slated to be the grand marshal of this year’s parade, but in true military fashion, he took the cancellation in stride.

“The way the military operates: improvise, adapt and overcome,” he said. “You always have to have a plan.”

The new plan was a ceremony at Towne House restaurant in Media, where the Penncrest High School band played and local dignitaries shared remarks. McGovern reminded the attendees that, parade or not, the day is about something bigger than marching down the street.

“I deployed in 2003/2004 to Iraq, so we lost people there. [In] 2009, I went back to Iraq — we lost people there. I know people from Drexel Hill, Upper Darby, that I grew up with died overseas serving our country,” he said. “Memorial Day is a day to remember all those soldiers that paid the ultimate sacrifice.”

Tammy Curran, a U.S. Navy vet who served in the 1980s and ’90s, echoed the sentiment: “Memorial Day is about remembering those who came before me, to provide freedom and safety to our country, to our people. It means a lot.”