June 2002 President's Corner

Bob Schultz '71, USNAAA Atlanta Chapter President

I am happy to report that Navy soundly beat Army for the fourth year in a row at the sixth annual Army-Navy Golf Classic on May 13^th at Fort McPherson. So, we get our name engraved on the plaque for yet another Navy victory! Look elsewhere in the newsletter for a detailed report on the tournament by event coordinator Will Wood ’66. Check out Current News & Info on the Chapter web site for pictures from the event.

Memorial Day Observed on May 27^th

I’m sure none of us missed honoring the nations heroes who died in the service of their country on this year’s celebration of Memorial Day.

Here, for your education as well as mine, is information from the Department of Veterans Affairs web site (www.va.gov) on the history of Memorial Day:

Three years after the Civil War ended, on May 5, 1868, the head of an organization of former Union soldiers and sailors - the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) - established Decoration Day as a time for the nation to decorate the graves of the war dead with flowers. Maj. Gen. John A. Logan declared it should be May 30. The first large observance was held that year at Arlington National Cemetery, across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. The cemetery already held the remains of 20,000 Union dead and several hundred Confederate dead.

The ceremonies centered around the mourning-draped veranda of the Arlington mansion, once the home of Gen. Robert E. Lee. Gen. and Mrs. Ulysses S. Grant and other Washington officials presided. After speeches, children from the Soldiers' and Sailors' Orphan Home and members of the GAR made their way through the cemetery, strewing flowers on both Union and Confederate graves, reciting prayers and singing hymns.

Local springtime tributes to the Civil War dead already had been held in various places. One of the first occurred in Columbus, Miss., April 25, 1866, when a group of women visited a cemetery to decorate the graves of Confederate soldiers who had fallen in battle at Shiloh. Nearby were the graves of Union soldiers, neglected because they were the enemy. Disturbed at the sight of the bare graves, the women placed some of their flowers on those graves, as well.

Today cities in the North and the South claim to be the birthplace of Memorial Day in 1866. Both Macon and Columbus, Ga., claim the title, as well as Richmond, Va. The village of Boalsburg, Pa., claims it began there two years earlier. A stone in a Carbondale, Ill., cemetery carries the statement that the first Decoration Day ceremony took place there on April 29, 1866. Carbondale was the wartime home of Gen. Logan. Approximately 25 places have been named in connection with the origin of Memorial Day, many of them in the South where most of the war dead were buried.

In 1966, Congress and President Lyndon Johnson declared Waterloo, N.Y., the "birthplace" of Memorial Day. There a ceremony on May 5, 1866, was reported to have honored local soldiers and sailors who had fought in the Civil War. Businesses closed and residents flew flags at half-mast. Supporters of Waterloo's claim say earlier observances in other places were either informal, not community-wide or one-time events.

By the end of the 19th century, Memorial Day ceremonies were being held on May 30 throughout the nation. State legislatures passed proclamations designating the day. The Army and Navy adopted regulations for proper observance at their facilities. It was not until after World War I, however, that the day was expanded to honor those who have died in all American wars. In 1971 Memorial Day was declared a national holiday by an act of Congress, though it is still often called Decoration Day. It was then also placed on the last Monday in May, as were some other federal holidays.

Many Southern states also have their own days for honoring the Confederate dead. Mississippi celebrates Confederate Memorial Day the last Monday of April, Alabama on the fourth Monday of April, and Georgia on April 26. North and South Carolina observe it May 10, Louisiana on June 3 and Tennessee calls that date Confederate Decoration Day. Texas celebrates Confederate Heroes Day January 19 and Virginia calls the last Monday in May Confederate Memorial Day.

Gen. Logan's order for his posts to decorate graves in 1868 "with the choicest flowers of springtime" urged: "We should guard their graves with sacred vigilance. ... Let pleasant paths invite the coming and going of reverent visitors and fond mourners. Let no neglect, no ravages of time, testify to the present or to the coming generations that we have forgotten as a people the cost of a free and undivided republic."

The crowd attending the first Memorial Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery was approximately the same size as those that attend today's observance, about 5,000 people. Then, as now, small American flags were placed on each grave - a tradition followed at many national cemeteries today. In recent years, the custom has grown in many families to decorate the graves of all departed loved ones on this day.

The origins of special services to honor those who die in war can be found in antiquity. The Athenian leader Pericles offered a tribute to the fallen heroes of the Peloponnesian War over 24 centuries ago that could be applied today to the 1.1 million Americans who have died in the nation's wars: "Not only are they commemorated by columns and inscriptions, but there dwells also an unwritten memorial of them, graven not on stone but in the hearts of men."

Flag Day is June 14^th in the United States

In 2002, June 14th marks the 225th birthday of the United States Flag. In 1777, the Continental Congress adopted the Stars and Stripes pattern for the national flag. This occurred almost one year after the Declaration of Independence and more than a decade before the U.S. Constitution was finalized. Flag Day was first celebrated in 1877, the centennial of the U.S. flag's existence. After that, many citizens and organizations advocated the adoption of a national day of commemoration for the U.S. Flag. It was not until 1949, that President Harry Truman signed legislation making Flag Day a day of national observance.

For information on proper display of the flag, contact your local veterans organizations such as the American Legion or Veterans of Foreign Wars.

"I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America
and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God,
indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

Francis Bellamy, 1892

Lets all get our flags back out and raised in proud display on flag day.

God bless America. God bless our troops deployed in the Middle East.

And… BEAT ARMY!

Bob Schultz ‘71