Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

A Day To Remember Nation Honors War Dead, Oklahoma City Victims

Associated Press

Memorial Day had an extra sadness at an Oklahoma City cemetery, where the names of victims of the terrorist bombing of the federal building were read aloud Monday, along with those of soldiers who had given their lives in battle.

As Americans remembered the fallen, they looked back 50 years ago to recall those whose sacrifices had brought an end to World War II.

Fred Butler, 70, stood at somber attention during a ceremony at a park in Hialeah, Fla. He honored the memory of fellow airmen who had died during World War II as well as his son, Fred III, who had died in Vietnam at age 20.

“We used to have about three times as many people here,” he said. “Now, people say, ‘It’s a day off; let’s go to the beach.’ Even when I was still working, this was never just a day off for me.”

In New York City, wreaths and carnations were tossed into the Hudson River in memory of war dead. Several hundred people attended a ceremony inside the aircraft carrier Intrepid, which had fought in the South Pacific and is now an air and space museum off Manhattan.

Mayor Rudolph Giuliani called World War II “the ultimate war of good against evil.”

At Arlington Memorial Park in suburban Oklahoma City, the names of 12 victims of the federal building bomb who are buried there were read along with the roll of the war dead there.

The victims’ fresh graves were thick with flowers as a gun salute and the mournful strains of taps floated over the crowd of several hundred.

“Don’t let our fallen comrades’ sacrifices be forgotten,” said retired Air Force Col. John Clark. “We must teach our young the importance of honoring those who have died.”

In Boston, Robert White, a World War II veteran, said that with the 50th anniversary of the war’s end this year, “we have to remember that an awful lot of people paid an awful big sacrifice.”

Meanwhile, in the Midwest, members of the National Guard, prison inmates and volunteers spent the day reinforcing levees along swollen rivers and helping flood victims in Illinois and Missouri.

President Clinton attended a ceremony on the White House lawn to unveil a postage stamp commemorating U.S. soldiers still missing from the Vietnam War and other wars. The stamp shows two military tags embossed with the words, “POW & MIA Never Forgotten.”

The post office in Andersonville, Ga., the site of a Civil War prisoner-of-war camp, was open Monday for special cancellations of the stamp. Postmaster Jim Atkins said he had sold 4,000 stamps by 11 a.m.

As many celebrated Memorial Day with parades, cookouts and picnics, funeral home director Robert Walker led a procession of more than two dozen hearses through Philadelphia’s most crime-plagued neighborhoods to pay tribute to young victims of urban violence.

“Young people have to wake up now or rest in peace,” said Walker, who owns Walker Funeral Home.

“This holiday has to go beyond honoring fallen veterans,” he said. “It is also a day to remember our young brothers and sisters, the ones who never got the chance to become soldiers or sailors. All they got to be were statistics.”