Memorial Day honored locally
Published 12:05 am Wednesday, May 27, 2015
- Members of Lutcher’s VFW Post 5852 provide a 21 Gun Salute Friday at the Memorial Day program hosted at the Southeast Louisiana War Veterans Home in Reserve. (Monique Roth/L’OBSERVATEUR)
LAPLACE — Monday was Memorial Day, the day annually earmarked to honor men and women who died while serving in the U.S. military.
Ty Reno, left, a 23-year active United States Navy serviceman, leads the Pledge of Allegiance at Get High on Life’s annual Memorial Day breakfast, hosted by Harold Keller, right.
Locally, the day was observed a few days early in two special ceremonies held Friday for the River Region’s hometown heroes.
Residents, their families and members of the community gathered at the Southeast Louisiana War Veterans Home in Reserve Friday afternoon for its annual Memorial Day program.
“The price of freedom is not free,” home Administrator Cleveland Obey said.
“Those courageous soldiers may be gone, but they are not forgotten.”
St. John the Baptist Parish Chief Administrative Assistant Michael Colburn was a guest speaker at the ceremony, where he said “wars begin and wars end, but the legacy of lost loved ones and the pain of living without them lasts forever.”
Colburn said remembering fallen soldiers one day a year is not enough, adding the St. John Parish community is privileged to be home to so many war heroes.
“It’s a pleasure to be here today to recognize true heroes in America,” Harold Keller, who was master of ceremonies, said at the opening of the program.
Keller’s ministry, Get High on Life, held its annual Memorial Day breakfast Friday in LaPlace, where highlights included Lutcher’s VFW 5852 orchestration of the Presentation of Colors and military flags.
The crowd of veterans stood as their respective branch’s song played, and the names of natives from St. John the Baptist and St. James Parishes who sacrificed their lives during wartime were read.
