Veterans, families, and supporters were invited to Roselawn Cemetery for a Memorial Day Service on May 27, with retired Maj. Gen. Robert F. Dees the guest speaker.
Many representatives from Martinsville and Henry County attended, including Henry County Sheriff Wayne Davis, retired Martinsville Police Chief Mike Rogers, Commonwealth Attorney Andy Hall, Debra Buchanan and Pam Cobler, both members of the Henry County Board of Supervisors, former Henry County School Board member Curtis Millner, and Kathy Lawson, a member of Martinsville City Council.
“This is what makes America great, this community, this cohesion, this collaboration, and this sense of honor and dignity. I honor each one of you,” said Dees.
“I honor all of you for keeping the main thing when we have many distractions on this national holiday,” Dees said when talking about how the message of Memorial Day can be forgotten.
“The death of these selfless servants carries with them themes of commitment, sacrifice, and nobility,” Dees said, adding that on Memorial Day, “We must ask ourselves an important question, where would we be today without those who paid the ultimate sacrifice? Those who slept on foreign soil? They were all in, and many of them never returned home.”
Thanks to their sacrificial efforts, Dees said America remains the land of the free and the home of the brave.
“On this Memorial Day, it seems that we have two things to do: to render honor to who honor is due, and secondly, in Lincoln’s words, to recommit to the premise that they shall not have died in vain,” Dees said, and added that while it’s always important to honor the fallen, we cannot forget to lead the living.
“Many communities just like yours are gathering around flags, around monuments, and around white stones on green blades of grass,” he said, and quoted Marcus Cicero to urge listeners to honor the fallen: “Poor is the nation that has no heroes, but poorer still is the nation that having heroes fails to honor them.”
Dees added that “for a family that has lost a loved one, every day is Memorial Day,” with families mourning for the loved ones left behind, whether it’s a recent memory or on the distant battlefields of history.
“They’ve always been there for us. Now we must be there for them, America,” Dees said, and praised those participating in the Henry County Memorial Day Ruck 22, which previously concluded and raised $8,066 that will be split between two veteran families.
“It’s not lost on me that 22 stands for the veterans that kill themselves every day,” Dees said, and added that he runs the National Center for Healthy Veterans, which works to “bring in at-risk veterans and help them get healthy so they can get out and do good things for America.”
He urged veterans who need help to visit www.healthyveterans.org.
The ceremony concluded with the laying of the wreath, followed by “Taps,” and a benediction. Family members proceeded outside to collect flags to lay on graves.
