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Boys Scouts prepare to raise the American Flag during the ceremony in front of the Schuyler County Courthouse.

Memorial Day services in Schuyler honor our fallen

SCHUYLER COUNTY, May 28 -- Memorial Day ceremonies were held Monday at four locations in Schuyler County.

Out nation's fallen soldiers were honored in morning services at the base of Shequagah Falls in Montour Falls, at the Naval Memorial at Seneca Harbor Park, on the Schuyler County Courthouse lawn in Watkins Glen, and at the Schuyler County Veterans Memorial Park outside Odessa.

The service in Montour Falls occurred first, at 9:30 a.m., and featured Glenn Bleiler of the Town of Catharine, who served in the U.S. Navy from 1989-96, holding the rank of lieutenant when his active duty was completed. He has worked since then in important leadership roles for Corning Incorporated.

His speech, framing history and the meaning of Memorial Day, was emblematic of the day. It appears in its entirety below.

The ceremony at the Naval Memorial in Seneca Harbor Park was a brief one at 10:30 a.m., with members of VFW Post 2674 present, along with Boy Scouts sponsored by the VFW. A hallmark of the ceremony was the casting of a bouquet of flowers into the lake from the pier by a member of the VFW Ladies Auxliary. That symbolizes Naval personnel who have fought across the years and sacrificed for the cause of freedom.

On hand for the ceremony was Congressman Tom Reed and Assemblyman Phil Palmesano, who then joined in the parade that ran from First Street south on Franklin Street to the Schuyler County Courthouse Lawn. Boy Scouts, veterans, firefighters, and Watkins Glen Mayor Mark Swinnerton were among the parade participants.

The 11 a.m. ceremony on the Courthouse lawn featured a keynote address by Louis M. Withiam of Ithaca, a retired Marine Corps colonel who taught in the Ithaca City School District and retired as Ithaca College's director of public safety.

He touched on a number of Memorial Day-related topics, including the heroics of World War II black units such as the Tuskegee Airmen and the Montford Point Marines; the fact that "Taps" has been designated the National Song of Remembrance; and the reminder that the Memorial Day weekend is "not just a three-day weekend and the start of summer."

Congressman Reed was among several politicians speaking at the ceremony. He called Memorial Day "a great day in America," one in which we have a chance "to say that we care" about our veterans and can honor all of them across America. "We are also here to celebrate the lives of those men and women" who perished in defense of our freedom, he said, adding that by celebrating the day, "you honor the vets, you salute the vets, you stand with the vets."

The ceremony at the Schuyler County Veterans Memorial Park along Rte. 228 outside of Odessa featured a keynote address by Lt. Col. Reg Ameele, retired from the U.S. Air Force. The Odessa-Montour High School Band, which performed at the Shequagah Falls ceremony earlier, was on hand for the Memorial Park service, as was a community choir under the direction of Kim Laursen. There was also a recitation, as there has been annually at the ceremony, of "In Flanders Field," a war poem written during World War I.

A fifth ceremony, for fallen firefighters around the country, was held outside the Watkins Glen fire station following the courthouse gathering. The firefighters used to hold the ceremony in a cemetery, but moved it to town after the recent installation of a memorial marker next to the fire bell at the front corner of the station. The marker reads, in part: "To all our fallen firefighters. May our hearts and prayers be with you. Your service will never be forgotten."

The keynote speech by Glenn Bleiler (pictured at right), presented at the Shequagah Falls ceremony, follows:

Good morning. Thank you, everyone, for being here on this most auspicious holiday. Thank you for the kind introduction, and thank you for inviting me to speak. Thank you community leaders, hosts and participants for this event, and most especially, thank you veterans and those in service today, thank you for your service and for the special honor you afford us all today.

I am here today with my wife Susan and we are honored to be here.

“Our dead brothers still live for us, and bid us think of life, not death.”
(So said) Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., Civil War veteran and future Supreme Court Justice, in his 1884 Memorial Day address, just 19 years after the Civil War. He was responding to the question "Why? Why do we have a Memorial Day?" It is an important question I believe we must ask and answer each Memorial Day.

When we ask the question “Why?” first and foremost we turn to those we memorialize.
The history or our military is not of ships and tanks, planes and missiles, bullets and armor… but of heroics of real men and women, willingly laying down their lives.

Throughout our nation’s history, the heroics of those men and women are immeasurable.
My submarine experience draws me to the amazing submarine crews in World War Two. They were just over 1% of our overall force and they sustained the highest percentages killed in action of any U.S. service arm. Yet the crews repeatedly redeployed, continuing their patrols and accounting for more than half of all sunken Axis tonnage, striking tremendous blows to our enemies in both the Pacific and the Atlantic.

Today we hear inexplicable heroics of our service men and women. I’ll highlight the courage, determination and fortitude of Marine Corp Master Sergeant William “Spanky” Gibson. On May 16, 2006 Master Sergeant Gibson was working with a SEAL team completing the day’s final patrol. They came under attack from several locations. One SEAL was hit and dropped. Sergeant Gibson, placing his own life in danger, retrieved and saved the SEAL… while simultaneously losing an entire leg. This alone is an amazing tale of bravery, but Master Sergeant Gibson didn’t stop there. After his leg amputation and recovery with a prosthetic leg… less than one year later he returned to active duty, driven to return to his unit, ultimately returning to ground combat operations in Iraq.

Throughout our nation’s history, our service men and women have demonstrated an incredible, inspirational determination, grit and will.

What would drive our soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines to such heroics? Winston Churchill, after the conclusion of World War Two, in his “Iron Curtain” address, spoke to it outright. He mentioned that the American military established battle plans. At the top of the plans, they would define our “over-all strategic concept.” Churchill saw the wisdom in the clarity of purpose this drove. He extended it beyond a battle plan when he said:

“What then is the over-all strategic concept which we should inscribe today? It is nothing less than the safety and welfare, the freedom and progress, of all the homes and families of all the men and women in all the lands.”

Today we might challenge, excuse and even deride that statement as unrealistic. While I admit Churchill was known for his dramatics, he had just finished the worst war the world had seen, and he recognized the promise of our nation’s principle -- that principle of freedom that drives our armed forces to such heroics.

This is our time to examine that truth and acknowledge that Churchill’s overall strategic concept can only be accomplished if brave souls are willing to sacrifice everything.

Today we know that to be true in the newly formed struggling democracies… they, as we, can only survive through heroic deeds inspired by freedom.

A memorial plaque at the American Cemetery overlooking Omaha Beach says it perfectly. This is where thousands of Americans died on D Day. It is inscribed:

“These endured all, gave all… that justice among nations might prevail and that mankind might enjoy freedom and inherit peace.”

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So we are here today, inspired by the memory of our heroes, grasping the principle of freedom. What then is expected of us?

Justice Holmes’ addressed that point, saying that Memorial Day “…embodies in the most impressive form our belief that to act with enthusiasm and faith is the condition of acting greatly.”

We as a nation are charged with responsibility, responsibility with acting greatly.

While today is most assuredly a solemn day, a day of memorial, it is also a day bidding us to enthusiastically “think of life,” the uniqueness of our American experience, the freedom for which we stand.

Today is our day. Our day to participate in government and civic organizations. Our day to educate our youth on our nation’s heritage. It is our day to lay flags on the graves of our fallen. It is our day to fly our flags.

We are tasked with sustaining this grand experiment we call the United States of America and the principles upon which we are founded.

In closing:

Justice Holmes’ Memorial Day address concluded on an uplifting note:

“As I listen, the great chorus of life and joy begins again, and amid the awful orchestra of seen and unseen powers and destinies of good and evil our trumpets sound once more a note of daring, hope, and will.”

Today, we hear that “note of daring, hope, and will” through:
--The daring memories of our heroes,
--the hope sustained by the principles for which they died, and
--the will, the will that we must ensure, as Lincoln said, that this “government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

May God bless you all, especially those who have served and serve today, and may God bless the United States of America.

Thank you.

Photos in text: From top, Congressman Tom Reed (left) and Assemblyman Phil Palmesano in the Watkins Glen parade; retired Lt. Col. Reg Ameele, keynote speaker at the Schuyler County Veterans Memorial Park; Montour Falls keynote speaker Glenn Bleiler; Watkins Glen keynote speaker Louis Withiam; Odessa-Montour band member Dana Roberts performing at the Memorial Park ceremony; and Tom Leslie of Horseheads performing "Amazing Grace" on the bagpipes at the Montour Falls ceremony. (The Ameele and Roberts photos are by Susan Bleiler)

A Community Choir led by Kim Laursen performs during the Memorial Day ceremony
at the Schuyler County Veterans Memorial Park. (Photo by Susan Bleiler)

Left: Bernie Riley plays "Taps" at the Naval Memorial ceremony. Right: Kim Blaha sings the National Anthem at the Montour Falls service.

Part of the Montour Falls Fire Department color guard at the Shequagah Falls ceremony.

Congressman Tom Reed hands some candy to Kamryn Notarfonzo
and her grandmother, Brenda Campbell, during the Watkins Glen parade.

The service in front of the Watkins Glen fire station, in honor of fallen firefighters.