Remembering The Parish Fallen
BOBBY ARDOIN
St. Landry Now.com Editor
St. Landry Parish soldiers who died in combat and their Gold Star families were remembered Monday during a solemn Yambilee Building ceremony and military tribute that followed at the Veterans Memorial south of Opelousas.
Guest speakers for the Yambilee Building event noted that each Memorial Day should be a reminder that freedom has always been achieved through the deaths and sacrifices made by American servicemen.
“Liberty survives only when brave soldiers are there to defend it,” said retired U.S. Sgt. First Class Larry Williams, the Assistant Secretary of Outreach for the Louisiana Department of Veterans Affairs.
The program also included recognition for five parish Gold Star families, whose sons died in Iraq and Afghanistan, while the annual roll call and bell of honor ceremony was performed for each St. Landry serviceman who was killed in both world wars, Korea, Vietnam and the Gulf wars.
Families representing Army sergeant Craig Davis, Army sergeant Jonathan Reed, Marine lance corporal Myles Sebastien, Army sergeant Jared Fontenot and Army sergeant Joseph A. Richard III who were killed in action during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars were also recognized.
The outdoor Veterans Memorial ceremony was highlighted by a 21-gun salute and the recorded playing of “Taps,” by the St. Landry Parish Veterans Funeral Honor Guard.
Pat Mason Guillory, chairman of the St. Landry Veterans Memorial project and mistress of ceremony for the event, told the audience that Veterans Day should always be “a sacred occasion that recognizes the preservation for freedoms that Americans enjoy every day.”
Mason-Guillory reminded the audience that architect Jerome Gaudet, who designed the Veterans Memorial center, died on Friday.
A Veterans Memorial flag ceremony concluded by leaving the flags at half mast in honor of Gaudet.
Opelousas Mayor Julius Alsandor and District 40 state representative Dustin Miller provided additional thoughts for the occasion.
Alsandor said that while it is appropriate to thank veterans for their service, Alsandor also reminded those who attended that in order to achieve lasting freedom it is necessary to depend upon the next generation of soldiers.
Miller said Memorial Day should always be remembered for providing opportunities for lawmakers to make decisions freely despite sometimes disagreeing.
Williams said that there are “no words powerful enough to capture the cost of freedom.
“Behind every name etched on military gravesites located on every continent is a story unfinished. They had plans, they had families but they made sacrifices so the future of Americans could live in peace,” said Williams.
The essence of American warfare is embedded in the acts of soldiers performing their duties with courage,” said Williams.
Williams provided an excerpt from a Ronald Reagan speech in which Reagan said that the day (America) has men who stop serving is the day that (America) gets overthrown.
