Durango marked Memorial Day with a series of solemn ceremonies that brought together veterans and families to remember the nation’s fallen and the events that forever changed their own lives.
At Iris Park’s Vietnam War memorial, attendees laid roses as U.S. Army veteran Chris Meyer read the names of Coloradans who died while serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. An honor guard fired three times, and a trumpeter sounded taps.
Couples put their arms around each other. Others sobbed quietly behind dark sunglasses.
“We must remember,” Meyer said in a prayer. “The people we honor today live on in our hearts and minds.”
Remember they did.
Calixto Cabrera, 65, remembered friends he lost in Vietnam. Cabrera served in the Marine Corps from 1965-71, earning three Purple Hearts.
Cabrera participated in the honor guard, wearing a button saying “Let peace begin with us.”
“Personally, for me, it’s to remind myself what an insanity war is,” he said. “We have to find out a way not to do this anymore.”
Memorial Day traces its history to May 1868, when Union veterans of the Civil War established Decoration Day to honor the graves of the war dead with flowers.
Durango’s veterans service organizations continued the tradition with ceremonies at Iris Park, Greenmount Cemetery and the Animas River at Ninth Street, where a wreath was dropped to honor those lost at sea. The Veterans of Foreign Wars Post No. 4031 distributed “Buddy Poppies” to honor the day.
Bill Morris, commander of the VFW post, spoke at Greenmount Cemetery and released the wreath into the river.
Old friends greeted each other for the first time since the last event that brought them together – for many of them, that was Veterans Day. At the Vietnam memorial, joggers passing by on the Animas River path stopped for just a minute before continuing their workouts.
Tom Ceglia, who served in the Army in 1968-69, said veterans are better regarded by the public than they used to be. But that’s not the point of military service, he said.
“We don’t do it to be regarded well,” Ceglia said. “We did it because we had to.”
At Greenmount, Beverly Atencio remembered her father, Frank Manzanares, who is buried there. He served in the Army from 1947 to 1969.
“He was dedicated to it completely,” she said.
The veterans said they deal with memories of their service in different ways. Meyer recently returned from Vietnam, where he’s involved with a nonprofit organization, the Veterans Vietnam Restoration Project, that builds schools.
“It allows me to leave a different legacy,” he said.
Modern Vietnam is a far different country, he said. “It’s a booming place – just growing by leaps and bounds.”
Jordan “Mac” McInnis, who enlisted in the Coast Guard and served in Korea, thought of his ancestors who served in World War I, the War of 1812 and the Revolutionary War, among other conflicts. He reflected that World War I, once known as “the war to end all wars,” was not.
McInnis said he’s become resigned to war as something nations do from time to time.
“I don’t think the politicians will ever get it right,” said McInnis, 83. “And if they keep getting it wrong, we’ll keep having more veterans, living or dead.”
cslothower@durangoherald.com
