VFW post leads township Memorial Day parade

This year, members began the event by carrying the flag

Medford VFW Post 7677 and township residents celebrate Memorial Day with post  commander and retired Army colonel Mark Preston and other veterans paying their respects at the war memorial on Main Street.

The township, its VFW Post 7677 and the community celebrated those who died while serving their country during the annual Memorial Day parade.

VFW members led the parade from Milton H. Allen School through South Main Street then to the Main Street war memorial, where an American flag was raised, a wreath was presented and there was a 21-gun salute. The parade continued on Union Street and ended at Freedom Park.

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“It’s great to see the streets lined with people putting off their holiday barbeque or their vacation to be there,” said Mark Preston, the VFW post’s commander and a retired Army colonel.

The Medford VFW members have been actively involved in the township’s parade since the post was formed in town 75 years ago. For this year’s event, members carried the American flag out first.

“We’ve been doing this with them for decades,” Preston said. “That’s our hometown, so we support anything they do.”

The Shawnee High School marching band has participated in township parades and celebrations for many years. On Memorial Day, its members played a piece of music called “Main Street America” and wore their traditional Shawnee blue uniforms. Other parade participants included the Medford EMS and police, the Union and Taunton fire companies and  the Civil Air Patrol-Air Victory Museum Composite Squadron.

The grand marshall was Capt. Richard L. Bucko, a resident of 25 years who is a member of Post 7677 and president of the Medford Historical Society. VFW members were also involved in other local holiday parades, with 12 to 30 veterans often in attendance at each, according to Preston. They cover Tabernacle, Shamong and Chatsworth parades and visit 17 cemeteries in the Pinelands.

After the parade, the Medford post had its own service with 40 to 45 people at its headquarters for taps and a prayer in honor of the fallen. 

Other town Memorial Day celebrations saw the Medford Sunrise Rotary Foundation and volunteers put together 320 full-size American flags on 7-and-a-half–foot poles featuring a commemorative medallion. The flags were lined up symmetrically in Freedom Park, according to the Burlington County Field of Honor, which was in place through June 3.

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