Cynthia Nielsen was only three years old, the youngest of five children, when her father, who worked for the Army Corps of Engineers, contracted polio and died in 1959.
It was him she was thinking about as she stood looking at a grave adorned with red, white, and blue balloons and ribbons following the Memorial Day ceremony Monday morning at the Veterans Memorial Cemetery.
Andrew Louis Nielsen is buried at the Golden Gate Cemetery in San Bruno, CA, too far of a drive to make on Monday. So, as she does often on Veterans and Memorial Day, Neilsen, who lives in Reno, decided to remember her father by paying her respects to others who also devoted their lives to serving their country.
“So, I just came here to think about him, remember him,” Nielsen said. “I’ve been to Arlington; I’ve been to several different military cemeteries and stuff. Pearl Harbor. They always hit me.”
Being such a small child, Nielsen didn’t get to attend her father’s funeral. But as an adult, she lived across the street from the Lone Tree Cemetery in Hayward, CA, and would often wander over during services.
“I would always hear the Amazing Grace play and different things going on and go to the services there too,” she said. “It always just makes me feel like I’m a part of something I never got to witness.”
Nielsen was so touched by the sight of a family with small children reading the names on gravestones on Monday that she pulled out her phone to take a picture. Then she showed a visitor a photo of her mother and father taken shortly before he became ill.
“I took my kids a lot to cemeteries as they were growing up,” she said. “And I taught my kids also to be grateful for the service, because you know all these people served and some died in the war, some died after.”
A crowd of more than a thousand people attended Monday’s ceremony. Rich Crombie, the president of the Nevada Veterans Coalition and master of ceremonies of Monday’s event, whose own son is buried in Arlington National Cemetery, said he could feel the spiritual power of the crowd.
“What I think about when I see the people in the audience, I always think that they’re probably thinking about the person they know, whether they’re buried here or some other cemetery, or a comrade, a shipmate, a fellow soldier they left behind on a hill in Vietnam or Korea, or Afghanistan or anywhere,” Crombie said. “It’s super powerful to get a thousand-plus people all collectively thinking the same thing. There’s got to be an energy there that you feel. I feel it.”
At one point, while acknowledging the elected officials and others in attendance, Crombie walked away from the podium into the cemetery and read a name on a gravestone, Glenn Lloyd, Second Lieutenant, United States Army Corps, World War II, April 28, 1924, to February 3, 1992.
“If we’re going to acknowledge folks, these are the people that we need to acknowledge, the 10,000-plus that are out here,” Crombie said. “But truly, the meaning of that, that’s what we’d like you to do. When this is all said and done, we’d love for you to go out there, just read one grave. Keep their memory alive, acknowledge them. You’ve heard the saying, we don’t know them, but we owe them.”
During his short remarks, Governor Joe Lombardo said that while all of those who served and died for their country came from diverse backgrounds and had unique dreams, they shared two common traits – valor and the love of their country.
“These heroes will forever hold a sacred place in our hearts and history, and in earning our deepest respect and gratitude,” Lombardo said.
Crombie also introduced Preston Sharp, the founder of Veterans Flags and Flowers. Sharp was 10 years old on Veterans Day in 2015 when his family visited his grandfather’s grave at Redding Memorial Cemetery in Redding, CA. He was upset that there were no flags on the other veterans’ graves, and he started raising money for flags and flowers by doing household chores. He has since placed flags and flowers on more than 1 million veterans’ graves in 50 states.
“We wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for them,” Sharp said. “We need to remember them every day and not just on holidays.
Keynote speaker Thomas Talamante, the Executive Director of the VA Sierra Nevada Health Care System, said Memorial Day reminds us that the freedom to serve was built on the ultimate sacrifice of others. He noted that the year 2025 marks the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War, the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, and the 250th anniversaries of the U.S. Army, Navy, and Marine Corps.
“These anniversaries are not just historical footnotes,” Talamante said. “They are reminders of the endurance of our nation and the long line of sacrifice that has preserved our way of life. We also honor the families who carry the weight of that sacrifice every single day. We will forever honor your service and your sacrifice to our nation.”
Talamante thanked those in attendance for taking the time to honor the fallen.
“May we carry their memory, not only in our words, but in our actions,” he said. “May we be worthy of their sacrifice.”
Comment
Comments