Veterans Coalition cancels Memorial Day ceremony
Robert Perea, The Fernley Reporter
The annual Memorial Day ceremony is usually the biggest event of the year hosted by the Nevada Veterans Coalition at the Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Fernley.
This year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the governor’s order prohibiting gatherings larger than 10 people, it won’t be held.
The Veterans Coalition announced May 1 that this year’s ceremony has been canceled. This will be the first time in 25 years that the ceremony will not be held.
“For over 11 years the NVC has proudly hosted and performed the ceremony to larger and larger crowds,” the NVC said in a statement. “We have all been very proud to donate our time and service to the event.”
Even though the coalition will be unable to host a large public gathering, Memorial Day will be observed by the State of Nevada. The Nevada Department of Veterans Services has developed two videos to help memorialize the fallen, one of the Southern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery and one of the Northern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery.
On Monday, May 25, the two videos will be presented on the front page of the NDVS website: www.veterans.nv.gov,
I am a proud veteran of the army with service in the Central Highlands, during the mini Tet of 1968! I was a freshly turned -18 yr old boy in a heavy artillery unit that was overrun in April 1968! We lost so many good kids over there and I guess God himself had been watching over me to now at 70 be able to still say I was there! God bless my friend, Larry (MAC) Mc Pherson, my big brother (at arms) who now is forever enshrined somewhere in the Fernley veterans cemetery! Daniel Wood (Woody) from Reno