County officials, veterans and community members marked Memorial Day in the city of Camden on May 24 in the serene setting of the Camden County Veterans Cemetery.
Camden County Commissioner Melinda Kane, Congressman Donald Norcross, Camden Mayor Victor Carstarphen, state Sen. Nilsa Cruz-Perez, Ted Gallagher of the Camden County Department of Veterans Affairs in Gloucester Township and Karen Flaherty-Oxler of the Cpl. Michael J. Crescenz VA Medical Center in Philadelphia were on hand for the annual ceremony honoring those who gave their lives in America’s wars and other conflicts.
The ceremony was sponsored by the board of commissioners, the veterans affairs department and the county’s Veterans Advisory Committee. It began at 10 a.m. among the solemn graves of war dead nestled within the historic Harliegh Cemetery.
The cemetery is the final resting place of distinguished military figures such as Gen. William J. Sewell and Union Army Col. George C. Burling, who both served in the Civil War. The site’s Spring Grove section is where about 300 soldiers of that conflict lay.
Kane, a Gold Star Mother whose son Jeremy was killed in Afghanistan in 2010, expressed some of the sentiment at the gathering.
“Memorial Day is a time for us to come together to honor our nation’s heroes,” she noted. “The brave men and women who never made it home will never be forgotten, and service members from all branches deserve to be thanked and recognized for their sacrifices, especially on this holiday.”
Originally commemorated as Decoration Day in 1868, Memorial Day is a federal holiday – officially recognized in 1971 – that honors all of America’s fallen soldiers, from World War II; the Vietnam and Korean wars; and more recent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, among others. This year’s official Memorial Day was May 27.
The ceremony was a reminder that the holiday is not just the opening of the summer season, but a day to remember those who make the ultimate sacrifice for America.
