PALMYRA COMMUNITY COMES TOGETHER TO PAY TRIBUTE

by Ruth Ann Mueller

       Palmyra’s Thomas Holcomb American Legion Post 304 began its Memorial Day observance with a 9 a.m. service at the Catholic Cemetery in the Town of Palmyra.

 Followed by the annual Memorial Day Parade.  Many residents and guests lined the streets of the parade route under warm sunny skies to enjoy the parade.   

      Leading the parade was the American Legion Color Guard, from Palmyra Post 304, followed by the Forty & Eight Engine, number 750 from Jefferson County; the Palmyra Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts and Girl Scout troops. The Palmyra-Eagle High School Band, and Badger Boy, Alex Murn, and Badger Girl, Emily Bleadow, were also part of the parade. A float by Heidi’s Hobbies added color to the parade along with an antique fire truck.

      Following the parade a large crowd gathered at Hillside cemetery to honor and pay their respects to the military personnel who lost their lives in the line of duty. Master of Ceremonies, Pat Sukowski, welcomed everyone to the Memorial Day Ceremony and read an article that reflected the Civil War period in Wisconsin’s history. It told of the faraway battle of the Civil War that took place 150 years ago and drew Wisconsinites to the battlefront.  More than 90,000 Wisconsin soldiers left their homes to fight in the south during the Civil War. Already in 1854 there were clues about where most Wisconsin residents would stand in the slavery struggles.

     The war also affected the lives of the women of Wisconsin.  With so many men gone off to war they needed to work their farms caring for the animals, milking and eventually fieldwork.

     When the war ended in 1865 the soldiers came home as heroes and many were inflicted with battle fatigue.  The State of Wisconsin didn’t give up on its veterans.  Women used their new found social clout to help returning soldiers.  They were influential in building military hospitals and the National Soldiers Homes in Wisconsin.

     Retired Marine Colonel Kent D. Koebke, a Senior Adviser at the Madison Area Technical College in Watertown, spoke on remembering those that have given their lives in service to our country.  Koebke gave a brief history of Memorial Day from after the

Civil War to the present time.  We as a nation have always had differences of opinion, but those that served us have served the constitution and have served no matter what their particular stance was on any given issue.

     Our duty as citizens is to remember those that gave their lives, and in doing so protect our right to disagree.  Memorial Day is a day of remembrance.

     The Palmyra-Eagle High School Band played several pieces throughout the ceremony including the Star Spangled Banner and America the Beautiful.

   Badger Boy, Alex Murn and Badger Girl, Emily Blaedow also shared their thoughts about Memorial Day through poems. Murn read a poem entitled “I Do Not Know Your Name” and Blaedow recited her poem titled,  “New Generation Veteran”. 

   The three veterans; Bernard Schulhof, Jerle Cegielski, and John Weiss, who had died this past year were also honored.

    The ceremony concluded with a  twenty-one gun salute followed by “Taps,” sounded by Deanna Kullow, and the Benediction given by Pastor Steven Blyth of St. Matthew Lutheran Church.