DELAWARE — A solemn gathering Monday morning at Oak Grove Cemetery honored the men and women who gave their lives in service to our country during the city of Delaware’s annual Memorial Day ceremony.
Hosted by Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 1095, the observance included patriotic music from the Delaware Community Concert Band, a community procession through the cemetery led by Stockhands Horses for Healing, and military honors at the Veterans West memorial area.
Veterans, families and community members gathered among the graves of generations of service members — including some dating back to the Revolutionary War. More than 11,000 veterans are buried in Delaware County, with more than 3,000 laid to rest at Oak Grove Cemetery alone.
The ceremony featured remarks from Delaware Mayor Carolyn Kay Riggle, a reading of Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address by David Hejmanowski, a cannon firing led by Rick Helwig, and military honors from the chapter’s honor guard including a rifle volley, Taps and a formal U.S. flag folding ceremony.
As Lincoln’s words echoed across the cemetery — “It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced” — the annual observance served as a reminder of the sacrifice at the heart of Memorial Day and the community’s responsibility to remember those who never returned home.
