Union and West End Cemetery

If you view the post for May 25th, you will note that Chapter 190, of the Military Order of the Purple Heart conducted a Memorial Day ceremony in The Union and West End Cemetery. This presentation, honoring the members of the various military services that died in combat in a foreign lands, was special in that nearly 100 hundred elementary school students from the Cleveland Elementary School were on hand.

The service was indeed memorable, but included the Boy Scout Troop 99 from Cleveland Elementary School serving as Flag Bearer's (Honor Guard) but the Scouts also participated in a flag burning ceremony, along with a number of female students and non-Scouts, that followed the regular Memorial Day ceremony.

The students then spent the day in the cemetery locating graves of veterans of all wars, participating in demonstrations of cooking using Dutch ovens and roasting Winnie's over an open fire.

The Morning Call was requested to be present for this program which was held on the Friday before the Monday holiday. Yes, there was a reporter representing the Morning Call (no photographer), but he and I both knew that whatever he wrote and no matter how glowing, it would never get past the Editors. And so it was; nothing appeared in the Morning Call about this ceremony. I know there are many, many Memorial Day ceremonies in the Lehigh Valley over the Memorial Day weekend, but the Military Order of the Purple Heart? These are veterans that were wounded in battle but survived. Don't they deserve some recognition for their sacrifices?

View a slide show of the even by checking the archives for May 25, 2012



And so it goes!