LYNN — Approximately 100 gathered at the sunken gardens at Pine Grove Cemetery on Memorial Day to pay their respects to the more than 37,000 members of the United States Armed Forces from Massachusetts who died while serving since the Revolutionary War.
As the All-City Band played a series of patriotic marching tunes, the Lynn Police Color Guard led city officials, state delegation members, and the Lynn English Junior Marine ROTC in a parade from the Manning Field parking lot to Pine Grove.
There, the procession circled a plot of 490 flags — each one representing men and women from Lynn who fought and died in service of their country since World War II.
“Dying is like a passage. It is but a moment, and at our burial time, we will see God,” said Fr. Alfonse Ferreira in his opening prayer. “In that moment, they have a new body. They are not gone, they are in the kingdom of God, and they too must be looking down and hoping that we continue respecting and honoring the constitutions of these United States of America.”
Following singer Gayle Bastarache’s performance of “God Bless America,” Mayor Jared Nicholson made a brief, yet potent speech in which he called on Lynners to remember and continue to honor the sacrifices made to preserve their ways of life.
“The freedom they knew was here in the city of Lynn. They knew our woods, they knew our beaches, they knew our streets, they went to our schools. They were part of the Lynn family and the freedom that they fought for is the freedom that we still enjoy,” Nicholson said. “It is our obligation as a city to continue to honor that sacrifice that our residents made in service of our great national experiment in government of the people, by the people, and for the people.”
The All-City Band performed a medley of service songs from five military branches. As each song started, Director of Veterans’ Services Michael Sweeney asked those who served in each branch to stand. The Lynn English Junior Marine ROTC followed with a series of rifle and marching demonstrations.
Sweeney, a U.S. Army veteran who now oversees both Lynn and Swampscott’s veterans’ services departments, introduced the guest speaker, Iraq War veteran and active Massachusetts Army National Guard Lt. Col. Tonya Costa.
At the podium, Costa focused her speech on the stories of two late Massachusetts service members — Marine Lance Cpl. Walter O’Haire, who was killed in Iraq in 2007 at the age of 20, and Army Spc. Gabriel Palacios, of Lynn, who was killed in Iraq in 2004 at the age of 22.
“That lance corporal and that specialist are two out of the 6,840 Americans who lost their lives during the Iraq conflict,” Costa said. “This Memorial Day, I invite you to share remembrance of one of them, or personal story, in your thoughts, your prayers, in your discussions, or on your social posts. It’s just one small way to continue to remember and celebrate those we’ve lost.”
After Lynn Veterans Council President Charles Dineen and Veterans Council Vice President Wayne Johnson laid a wreath honoring all of the Commonwealth’s fallen service members, the crowd paused for a moment of silence.
The audience remained silent as two All-City Band trumpeters blared a powerful performance of “Taps,” a bugle call used to signal lights out and a salute to fallen soldiers at military funerals.
Before concluding the ceremony, Sweeney reminded the crowd that this year marks the 40th anniversary of the Beirut barracks bombing in 1983, in which two truck bombs drove into a U.S. Marine Corps barracks in Beirut, Lebanon, killing 241 American service members. Among those killed was Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Bradley Campus, of Lynn.
Sweeney announced that the Veterans Services Department would hold a memorial for Campus in October, and invited everyone to attend and pay their respects.
“It’s a good reminder that it’s never too late to honor the fallen,” Sweeney said.
