thedrifter
05-30-07, 05:57 AM
Somber and tearful
The crowds were larger than usual this Memorial Day, as people throughout the region honored the troops who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan.
By Joseph A. Slobodzian
Inquirer Staff Writer
"No words possible. Hope, prayer and thanks."
One by one, page after page, the hand-written messages showed the added significance of Memorial Day 2007 in Doylestown.
Scores of people stopped yesterday at West State and South Hamilton Streets, taking time to pen notes of condolence to the families of Marine First Lt. Travis Manion and Army First Lt. Colby Umbrell, two of four Bucks County service members killed in Iraq in the last four weeks.
Marching veterans took a moment to stop the parade, execute a right-face and salute the table containing photos of the two young Doylestown residents whose memories were still strong in their hometown.
Throughout the region, Memorial Day events seemed better-attended and more somber than at what many veterans used to complain was becoming too much a start-of-summer celebration.
"It just seemed so appropriate," Bob Quon, 44, said of the Doylestown memorial he helped organize across from his florist shop. "This is a small community, and this is what people in towns like this do when faced with this kind of tragedy."
Manion, 26, who grew up in Doylestown Township, was killed April 29 near Fallujah. Umbrell, 26, a native of Doylestown Borough, died May 3 near Musayyib.
The other recent Bucks casualties were Army Sgt. Allen J. Dunckley Jr. of Yardley, killed May 14 in Salman Pak, and Spec. Robert Dembowski Jr., 20, of Ivyland, a 2005 graduate of Council Rock High School North who died Thursday of wounds suffered earlier in Baghdad.
Watching quietly across the street in the entrance of a friend's store was Umbrell's mother, Nancy Umbrell.
Memorial Days in Doylestown - an estimated 25,000 to 30,000 attended yesterday - have been a staple for the Umbrells: Nancy's husband, Mark, has paraded for years with the local Lions Club.
"Today I'm just here for the other veterans," Nancy Umbrell said, tears welling in her eyes.
She said yesterday's parade could be her last for awhile: "I think we're going to be spending Memorial Day visiting Arlington from now on."
Her son was buried May 18 at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.
The crowds turned out elsewhere as well. In Haddonfield, parade chairman Louis Sesso, an Army veteran of World War II, estimated about 125 people participated in the half-mile march, watched by 300.
In Philadelphia's Port Richmond, the traditional parade included a first: raising an American flag in Campbell Square Park on Allegheny Avenue.
Hoisting the banner before a crowd of about 500 was Pfc. Adam Huff, 19, of Newtown in Bucks County (his first Memorial Day since joining the Marine Corps as a reservist) and Marine Cpl. Devon Barnes, 24, of Philadelphia.
"It has more of a meaning this year," said Huff, who added that he was thinking of fellow Marines who may not return from the war.
Barnes said he, too, had a "newfound respect" for those in the service, especially those who died: "This is the day for them."
The casualties of war were the focus of a commemoration on Independence Mall: a miniature Arlington of nearly 1,200 wooden "headstones" reaching across the lawn. Each marker bore the name and photo of a service member killed in Iraq. A few markers noted that some had taken their own lives after coming home.
All day, visitors walked among row upon row of markers set in near-perfect alignment, reading the names and staring at the faces of the dead.
"There's every kind of person here," said Harriet Bernstein of Bala Cynwyd. "Pro or con on the war, we are indebted to those who served."
The imitation cemetery offered detail without context. There was no debate of right or wrong and no sloganeering.
Instead there were the names and faces of people like Jae S. Moon, a 21-year-old Army sergeant from Levittown who died in Baghdad on Christmas Day, two weeks after being wounded in an explosion. His mother, father and sister left flowers beside his marker.
Or like Maj. John Spahr of Cherry Hill, a 42-year-old Marine Corps pilot killed when his F-18 crashed in Iraq in 2005. A note left by his family said, "We'll never be the same without you on our team."
The memorial was sponsored by Delaware Valley Veterans for America and supported by several antiwar veterans groups, including Iraq Veterans Against the War and Vietnam Veterans Against the War.
Bill Perry, a Vietnam veteran and executive director of the Delaware Valley group, said "Arlington North" represented "a cry, helping people evaluate the cost of war. . . . That's not prowar or antiwar, that's just American common sense."
At parades' end, inevitably, there was the memorial service, all the more poignant in communities where many could now put a face on the war.
In Kennett Square, in what organizer Mike Pralle of VFW Post 5461 called "probably the best-attended parade I have seen," the ceremonies ended at Union Hill Cemetery.
There, Jill and Warren Hardy put a wreath on the living memorial to veterans who died in war. Their son, Marine Cpl. Brandon M. Hardy, was killed in April 2006 in Iraq.
There was a 21-gun salute, and the Kennett Square High School band trumpeters played Taps.
At Doylestown Cemetery, the Central Bucks East High School Band performed a patriotic medley in honor of Colby Umbrell, "Class of '99."
And in the tree-lined burial ground, where veterans from the Civil War on are buried, the memorial service officially welcomed the first Iraq war casualty: Marine Cpl. Barton R. Humlhanz, a Doylestown native killed Aug. 26, 2004, in northern Babil province.
Three veterans of the conflict in Afghanistan and Iraq - Navy Lt. Chris Serafin, Army Maj. Matt Fisher, and Army Staff Sgt. Doug Reilly - placed a wreath on Humlhanz's grave as his grandparents Ollie and Marti Groman looked on.
Also on hand was 89-year-old Henry Kleinot of Point Pleasant, an Army tank mechanic in World War II and a Memorial Day regular for decades.
Kleinot sat in a lawn chair along the gravestone of his brother Kasimir, an Army Air Force tail gunner killed over Europe.
A tear rolled down his cheek as he recalled how an Army chaplain delivered the news "in the last days of the war."
"I still can't talk about this without choking up," he said.
View a slide show of local Memorial Day observances at go.philly.com/memorialday
The crowds were larger than usual this Memorial Day, as people throughout the region honored the troops who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan.
By Joseph A. Slobodzian
Inquirer Staff Writer
"No words possible. Hope, prayer and thanks."
One by one, page after page, the hand-written messages showed the added significance of Memorial Day 2007 in Doylestown.
Scores of people stopped yesterday at West State and South Hamilton Streets, taking time to pen notes of condolence to the families of Marine First Lt. Travis Manion and Army First Lt. Colby Umbrell, two of four Bucks County service members killed in Iraq in the last four weeks.
Marching veterans took a moment to stop the parade, execute a right-face and salute the table containing photos of the two young Doylestown residents whose memories were still strong in their hometown.
Throughout the region, Memorial Day events seemed better-attended and more somber than at what many veterans used to complain was becoming too much a start-of-summer celebration.
"It just seemed so appropriate," Bob Quon, 44, said of the Doylestown memorial he helped organize across from his florist shop. "This is a small community, and this is what people in towns like this do when faced with this kind of tragedy."
Manion, 26, who grew up in Doylestown Township, was killed April 29 near Fallujah. Umbrell, 26, a native of Doylestown Borough, died May 3 near Musayyib.
The other recent Bucks casualties were Army Sgt. Allen J. Dunckley Jr. of Yardley, killed May 14 in Salman Pak, and Spec. Robert Dembowski Jr., 20, of Ivyland, a 2005 graduate of Council Rock High School North who died Thursday of wounds suffered earlier in Baghdad.
Watching quietly across the street in the entrance of a friend's store was Umbrell's mother, Nancy Umbrell.
Memorial Days in Doylestown - an estimated 25,000 to 30,000 attended yesterday - have been a staple for the Umbrells: Nancy's husband, Mark, has paraded for years with the local Lions Club.
"Today I'm just here for the other veterans," Nancy Umbrell said, tears welling in her eyes.
She said yesterday's parade could be her last for awhile: "I think we're going to be spending Memorial Day visiting Arlington from now on."
Her son was buried May 18 at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.
The crowds turned out elsewhere as well. In Haddonfield, parade chairman Louis Sesso, an Army veteran of World War II, estimated about 125 people participated in the half-mile march, watched by 300.
In Philadelphia's Port Richmond, the traditional parade included a first: raising an American flag in Campbell Square Park on Allegheny Avenue.
Hoisting the banner before a crowd of about 500 was Pfc. Adam Huff, 19, of Newtown in Bucks County (his first Memorial Day since joining the Marine Corps as a reservist) and Marine Cpl. Devon Barnes, 24, of Philadelphia.
"It has more of a meaning this year," said Huff, who added that he was thinking of fellow Marines who may not return from the war.
Barnes said he, too, had a "newfound respect" for those in the service, especially those who died: "This is the day for them."
The casualties of war were the focus of a commemoration on Independence Mall: a miniature Arlington of nearly 1,200 wooden "headstones" reaching across the lawn. Each marker bore the name and photo of a service member killed in Iraq. A few markers noted that some had taken their own lives after coming home.
All day, visitors walked among row upon row of markers set in near-perfect alignment, reading the names and staring at the faces of the dead.
"There's every kind of person here," said Harriet Bernstein of Bala Cynwyd. "Pro or con on the war, we are indebted to those who served."
The imitation cemetery offered detail without context. There was no debate of right or wrong and no sloganeering.
Instead there were the names and faces of people like Jae S. Moon, a 21-year-old Army sergeant from Levittown who died in Baghdad on Christmas Day, two weeks after being wounded in an explosion. His mother, father and sister left flowers beside his marker.
Or like Maj. John Spahr of Cherry Hill, a 42-year-old Marine Corps pilot killed when his F-18 crashed in Iraq in 2005. A note left by his family said, "We'll never be the same without you on our team."
The memorial was sponsored by Delaware Valley Veterans for America and supported by several antiwar veterans groups, including Iraq Veterans Against the War and Vietnam Veterans Against the War.
Bill Perry, a Vietnam veteran and executive director of the Delaware Valley group, said "Arlington North" represented "a cry, helping people evaluate the cost of war. . . . That's not prowar or antiwar, that's just American common sense."
At parades' end, inevitably, there was the memorial service, all the more poignant in communities where many could now put a face on the war.
In Kennett Square, in what organizer Mike Pralle of VFW Post 5461 called "probably the best-attended parade I have seen," the ceremonies ended at Union Hill Cemetery.
There, Jill and Warren Hardy put a wreath on the living memorial to veterans who died in war. Their son, Marine Cpl. Brandon M. Hardy, was killed in April 2006 in Iraq.
There was a 21-gun salute, and the Kennett Square High School band trumpeters played Taps.
At Doylestown Cemetery, the Central Bucks East High School Band performed a patriotic medley in honor of Colby Umbrell, "Class of '99."
And in the tree-lined burial ground, where veterans from the Civil War on are buried, the memorial service officially welcomed the first Iraq war casualty: Marine Cpl. Barton R. Humlhanz, a Doylestown native killed Aug. 26, 2004, in northern Babil province.
Three veterans of the conflict in Afghanistan and Iraq - Navy Lt. Chris Serafin, Army Maj. Matt Fisher, and Army Staff Sgt. Doug Reilly - placed a wreath on Humlhanz's grave as his grandparents Ollie and Marti Groman looked on.
Also on hand was 89-year-old Henry Kleinot of Point Pleasant, an Army tank mechanic in World War II and a Memorial Day regular for decades.
Kleinot sat in a lawn chair along the gravestone of his brother Kasimir, an Army Air Force tail gunner killed over Europe.
A tear rolled down his cheek as he recalled how an Army chaplain delivered the news "in the last days of the war."
"I still can't talk about this without choking up," he said.
View a slide show of local Memorial Day observances at go.philly.com/memorialday