Communities marked Memorial Day Monday with parades and ceremonies, honoring service members who died in action.
About 100 people gathered in Manchester’s Veterans Park for a wreath laying ceremony and parade. Attendees watched solemnly as Manchester Mayor Jay Ruais and Captain Susan Cuddy placed a wreath in front of a memorial for soldiers killed in World War II.
New Hampshire Sen. Maggie Hassan said she had a personal connection to that war, as her father fought in the Battle of the Bulge. She marked the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II and said that fighting for freedom still matters, even as authoritarianism and antisemitism are on the rise in the world.
“The lessons that the Greatest Generation taught us are as urgent as they have ever been,” she said. “The lesson is that you cannot appease a tyrant; you have to stand up to them.”
Hassan also thanked military service members and their families for their sacrifices, including Private Raymond Cole from Andover. Cole was killed in action as the US Army Rangers climbed the cliffs overlooking the beaches of Normandy to take out German artillery ahead of D-Day.
Others, like Commander Daniel Beliveau from the Manchester Veterans Council, reflected on the sacrifices made by service members in other wars. He noted that the Civil War had the most casualties of any American conflict, with more than 655,000 losses among both Union and Confederate soldiers.
“Our country was torn apart at that time. It took a long time to heal,” he said. “Today we're again divided along political and ideological lines. We must put these aside and work together for the good of our country.”