BOALSBURG, Pa. - Soldiers, family members and friends of the 28th Infantry Division paid tribute to the unit’s past and its role in America’s future during the Annual Memorial Service Sunday, June 1. The colorful ceremony — held at the division shrine in Boalsburg on the grounds of the Pennsylvania Military Museum — featured speakers Gov. Tom Corbett; Lt. Gen. Michael Tucker, commanding general First Army; Maj. Gen. Wesley Craig, adjutant general of Pennsylvania; and Brig. Gen. John Gronski, 28th Infantry Division commander.
Nearly 100 Gold Star family members attended the event which also draws a crowd of onlookers to the quiet town which claims to be the birthplace of Memorial Day. Highlights of the event are the posting of the colors of all the division units in a semi-circle around the shrine, the laying of wreaths at unit monuments and a 21-gun howitzer salute.
Gronski offered this year’s welcoming remarks following selections from the division band and a performance of “Amazing Grace.”
“Our current generation of warriors answered a call to defend our freedom. And we all know that this commitment comes at a very dear price,” he said.
The ceremony took place just a week after nearly 300 division soldiers returned from participating for the first time in a multinational NATO exercise, Rochambeau 2014 in France. Tucker, the event’s featured speaker, said such trainings help sustain the readiness of the reserve component.
“This was a first ever, multi-national exercise for the ‘Roll On’ division and demonstrated our new training management and operational requirements for all our National Guard formations, as part of our regionally aligned forces,” Tucker said. “The Army cannot fight and win on the modern battlefield without the Army National Guard and Army Reserve standing shoulder-to-shoulder with active-duty soldiers. Thirteen years of hard-fought combat have taught us this valuable lesson and it’s one that we won’t soon forget.”
Corbett spoke about the dual roles of citizen-soldiers. He said when duty calls soldiers are leaders but said these deployed leaders are also Americans who want most to return home to grow their crops, their careers and their families.
“The most extraordinary truth about these heroes is what they’ve done after the war. Entire generations of battle-scarred men and women have come home to return to the quiet, modest lives of regular citizens,” Corbett said. “A special role is given to the American who takes on the task of defending our country.”
Corbett said he has come to the Boalsburg on occasion since 1972, when he participated in the ceremony as a 28th enlisted man holding one of the flags. He pointed out both the beautiful late spring weather and the camaraderie evident in the assembly which included a number of retired division commanders and command sergeants major and other veterans.
“If this isn’t America the beautiful, I don’t know what is,” Corbett said. “But it is more than that. If you look around at the men and women here, it is America the strong. And, as a result, it is America the free.”
Craig said it’s fitting that the annual memorial service takes place both in Boalsburg — where locals helped create Memorial Day by pledging to annually place flowers on the graves of fallen Civil War soldiers, and on the grounds of the Boal estate and Camp Boal — where Theodore Boal raised and financed a horse-mounted machine gun troop to serve in the Pa. Guard in World War I.
Craig said that the division’s nearly 4,000 fallen soldiers made a difference in their time. He said the annual ceremony, which grew out of Boal troop reunions, helps keep alive the memory of the fallen.
“Be assured your soldier did not die in vain, because he was part of the American military and fighting to make the world a better place,” Craig told the Gold Star families present.
Gronski asked the audience to take time to remember those currently serving in harm’s way. He said the current generation of fallen heroes leaves a legacy of sacrifice that is an inspiration to those who remain and to generations to come. Gronski said the nation’s warriors conduct operations not so much to destroy but to protect. He contrasted the ways of adversaries who use children as human shields against the work of our brave warriors who act as a shield for children.
“For more than two centuries Americans have been called to serve and to sacrifice for the ideals of our founding, and the men and women of our military have never failed us,” he said. “They have left many monuments along the way: an undivided union, a liberated Europe, the rise of democracy in countries who have never known the sweet taste of liberty, and protection against the disciples of evil who wish to end our way of life.”
Date Taken: | 06.01.2014 |
Date Posted: | 06.01.2014 18:48 |
Story ID: | 131765 |
Location: | BOALSBURG, PENNSYLVANIA, US |
Web Views: | 1,271 |
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