As one who served in the military during the Vietnam War, Miller County Sheriff Ron Stovall shared some interesting statistics Monday regarding American servicemen and women who died in that war.
"Of the 58,963 Americans who are listed as combat fatalities on the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C., 33,103 were 18 years old, 12 of them were 17 years old and one, Dan Bullock, a U.S. Army private first class, was only 15 years old," Stovall said during the first of three Memorial Day services dotting both sides of Texarkana.
"Eight of those listed on the wall are women who were killed while nursing the wounded and 54 of those soldiers on the wall all attended the same public school in Philadelphia."
Stovall, who served as the featured guest speaker at the ceremony held at the Miller County Courthouse, used the stats to drive home his point that Memorial Day should be every day.
"When it was 'cool' to burn draft cards and American flags, there were men and women who remained loyal to their country-brave soldiers who fought when it wasn't popular to do so," Stovall said. "By honoring our nation's war dead, we preserve their memory and their sacrifice for future generations."
Stovall then paid tribute to veterans who survived war.
"As America's remaining 700,000 World War II veterans gradually disappear from our society, there are fewer and fewer standard bearers from that generation left to carry the torch of remembrance," he said. "It's because of men like former U.S. Marine Corps Master Sgt. Jesse D. Tinsley (now 96 and a regular attendee of the annual memorial services) that we realize that sacrifice without remembrance is meaningless."
Following the courthouse services, a memorial walk to the Korea-Vietnam Memorial proceeded from Laurel Street to North State Line Avenue for the day's second service.
There, Greg Beck, Vietnam Veterans of America Local Chapter No. 278 president, conducted the proceedings. They included the reading of the Roll Call of Honor featuring the names of the more recent combat fatalities from Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan).
Local Memorial Day events then moved on for a final ceremony at Hillcrest Memorial Park. There, Texarkana, Ark., Mayor Ruth Penney-Bell reminded the audience that the 9-11 terrorist attacks added another chapter to Memorial Day heroes - the life sacrifices made by police, firefighters and other public safety first responders.
"The battlefields are no longer just in Europe, Asia and the Middle East," she said. "We are going to have to add to the list of our servicemen and women, who protect us, because war is now changing. The people who threaten us today could be now be living among us. They go to our schools, they learn how to fly, they hijack our passenger airplanes and they fly them into our buildings. On that morning of 9/11, brave men and women ran into the buildings-that were in the process of collapsing-so they could save the lives of other people at the expense of their own. These people have also become our friends and heroes."