By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
Paying respects on Memorial Day is not an option for people like Doug Kratzer, of Bowling Green. It is a necessity.
His father, Herb Kratzer, is a 98-year-old World War II veteran.
“He’s in a wheelchair, but he’s sharp as a whip,” Kratzer said of his father, who is unable to attend Bowling Green’s Memorial Day Parade any more. So his son goes in his stead.
“This is to remember all the people who are gone, and to show respect for the nation,” Doug Kratzer said as he waited for the parade to begin along Main Street Monday morning.
World War II veterans, like his father, are reaching the end of their lives – leaving few of that generation to share their stories.
And with them, go their memories of war and sacrifice – like that of Herb Kratzer, who served in Belgium during WWII.
“He was a medic, so he saw the damage it did to people,” his son said.
Also standing along Main Street was John Barnes, who served in the U.S. Marine Corp during the Korean War.
The annual Memorial Day observation is also a necessity for Barnes, who spent a year in Korea.
“I’m here because someone should come here,” Barnes said.
Too many people don’t care about paying their respects to military men and women who gave their lives protecting the nation, he said. They are busy with their own lives, and see no need to line up along the parade route, Barnes said.
Emmy Hann, 88, missed the parade – but that’s because she was the guest speaker at the Memorial Day program at Dowling Cemetery. Hann served in the Army Women’s Medical Specialist Corps from 1952 to 1956, working as a dietician at Walter Reed Army Hospital.
She came right from the Dowling Cemetery to Oak Grove Cemetery for the Bowling Green Memorial Day program.
“We are able to have gatherings like this because of what our deceased veterans did for us,” Hann said.
But Hann also would like to see Memorial Day focus on more than those who died in service.
“I’m trying to promote this for living veterans who are still with us,” but have sacrificed a great deal in war, she said. She spoke of a family member who was exposed to the burn pits in the Middle East and lost much of his lung functions.
Though many of those along the parade route and at the cemetery were of older generations, there were also some younger spectators. Molly Pollick, of Bowling Green, brought her two children to watch their cousin playing trombone in the Bowling Green High School Marching Band.
But Pollick said she and her children, ages 6 and 8, discussed the purpose for Memorial Day prior to packing up for the parade.
“I explained we are remembering people who passed away serving their country,” she said.
Bowling Green Mayor Dick Edwards was the keynote speaker at the program in Oak Grove Cemetery. He talked about the first time he recited the Gettysburg Address by memory when he was a high school senior in Bellevue in 1957. He credited his teacher for inspiring him to memorize all 272 words of the address.
During the last seven years as mayor, Edwards has repeated that address on each Memorial Day – though no longer from memory.
He spoke of Abraham Lincoln’s “amazingly brief speech,” which said so much with so few words. Lincoln vowed that the deaths of Civil War soldiers would not be forgotten.
The mayor also talked about the need to preserve history in America. He stressed that history education should not be downgraded, nor should history be rewritten to avoid offending people.
History must be remembered – whether it is “the good, the bad, and the ugly,” he said. “May we not lose our sense of history.”
Edwards reflected on how his life had been shaped by many in “the greatest generation” of Americans who served in World War II. He listed off his high school teachers, his Buckeye Boys State leaders, and American Legion officials who were part of that generation that saved the world from tyranny.
The mayor mentioned local veterans who had an impact on him and the Bowling Green community – including Wesley K. Hoffman, Bruce Bellard, and the Newlove family.
Those and many others were “totally selfless in their service to the country,” who believed in dedicating their lives to the greater good.
“May we never be too busy and too absorbed with self to remember,” Edwards said.
As usual, the parade started downtown and included local veterans, Civil War re-enactors, police officers, firefighters, Boy Scouts and Girls Scouts, plus the marching band.
From downtown, the parade traveled to the Wood County Courthouse, where a 21-gun salute was performed. Then the parade continued to Oak Grove Cemetery, where General Logan’s Orders and the Gettysburg Address were read, and wreaths were placed on the mound for veterans from all wars fought. Evie Van Vorhis performed patriotic songs, and Girls Scouts Nora Brogan, Kleora Beair and Stefancy Riffle shared their thoughts on “What Patriotism Means to Us.”
