Cadet Lt. Col. Sarah Hollis knew the men and women who served in America’s wars were going to walk past her Monday in Bangor’s annual Memorial Day parade. As a leader in the Junior ROTC program at Bangor High School, she helped organize the event.
But as the veterans who served in World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan walked by her in front of Davenport Park, the high school junior lost her composure and began to weep.
“I have such reverence for those who served,” Hollis said. “Just seeing them walk by brought me to tears. It’s very important to have this day to reflect on their sacrifice and the sacrifice of those who died.”
Hollis, who lives in Orrington, plans to join the U.S. Army when she graduates next year. Her grandfather, who is a veteran, attended the short ceremony after the parade at the USS Maine memorial in Davenport Park.
Dusty Fisher, a U.S. Army veteran, marched with the Marine Corps League, a service organization. He served from 1962 to 1965 during the Vietnam War. The war in Southeast Asia grew increasingly unpopular, and some returning veterans were spit on by protesters.
“The reason we’re here is so that what happened in the late 1960s never happens again,” Fisher, 77, of Brewer said. “These veterans need to know we care about them. People in this area still care about us. I’m very touched by that.”
Several thousand people lined Exchange, Central and Main streets to watch the parade. Some of them wore caps that identified them as veterans, others wore patriotic shirts, and many dogs sported red-, white-and-blue scarves.
Mac Strasser’s 6-month-old terrier mix, Cornelius, wore one of those scarves to the parade. The puppy peeked between his owner’s ankles as he watched people arrive in Davenport Park for the parade.
“I marched in this parade with the Brewer High School band for four years,” Strasser, 26, of Bangor said. “I played baritone saxophone. I think coming to the parade is just a great way to support the community.”
Memorial Day became a national celebration in 1868, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica. That year, John A. Logan, commander in chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, issued an order designating May 30 as Decoration Day.
“Let us, then, at the time appointed, gather around their sacred remains and garland the passionless mounds above them with choicest flowers of springtime; let us raise above them the dear old flag they saved from dishonor; let us in this solemn presence renew our pledges to aid and assist those whom they have left among us as sacred charges upon the Nation’s gratitude, — the soldier’s and sailor’s widow and orphan,” Logan wrote in his order.
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