Nevada Veterans Coalition President Rich Crombie opened his remarks at last Saturday’s Wreaths Across America ceremony by thanking those in attendance who brought their children.
Along with military cemeteries across the nation, the Nevada Veterans Coalition has hosted Wreaths Across America at the Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Fernley since 2007 to remember and honor those who served.
But Crombie said there’s another component to that mission.
“We appreciate that because that’s the motto of Wreaths Across America: Remember, honor, and teach,” Crombie said. “Today we show a united front of gratitude and respect across the United States as we remember the fallen, honor those who serve and their families, and teach the next generation the value of freedom.”
Three generations of Steve Bell’s family took that to heart.
Along with his daughter and son-in-law, Shannon and Lucas Clark, and their children, John and Cassidy, they laid a wreath on the grave of Steve’s parents, Robert and Virginia Bell, and several others.
“Which flag was yours?” John Clark asked his grandfather, looking toward the flags representing each branch of the U.S. military flying above the columbarium wall at the northern edge of the cemetery.
Richard Bell served as an infantryman in World War II and then was part of the occupation forces in Japan at the end of the war. Steve Bell served as a door gunner in the Navy in the southern tip of Vietnam.
Robert Bell died in 2017, and Steve Bell said he and his family have been coming every year since.
Watching other children ask questions, Crombie said the meaning of the event seems to grow stronger every year.
“That’s what it is,” Crombie said. “It spurs interest and you tell stories and maybe then they’ll grow older and they’ll be grandpa one day and tell their own stories. It’s about honor and country, and it doesn’t matter religion or what faith you have or anything. It’s the idea we’re all fighting to keep this country safe and the American way of life, and these are the people that, whether they died in wartime or peacetime, they still served and gave of themselves and their families sacrificed.”
During the ceremony, representatives of each branch of the United States armed forces, each escorted by a U.S. Navy Sea Cadet, placed a wreath at the seal and flag of their respective service to honor those who served and are serving, and in honor of the 93,129 United States servicemembers from all branches whose last known status was either prisoners of war or missing in action.
Before releasing the crowd to lay their own wreaths, Crombie asked them to say the name on the grave or the columbarium wall aloud.
“And remember, we’re not here today to decorate graves, and these are not Christmas wreaths,” Crombie said. “They are remembrance wreaths. We’re here to remember, not their deaths but their lives. Each wreath is a gift of appreciation from a grateful America.”
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