Memorial Day observed
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“We must reflect on what we have and what we sometimes take for granted.”
Those words spoken by chief warrant officer Pruett Helm marked the 2017 observance of Memorial Day in Polson.
Helm, who served in the U.S. Army in Vietnam, recalled 11 of his comrades who died “horrible deaths, excruciating deaths” in a shootout near the Cambodian border on Nov. 11, 1966.
“We must celebrate their lives,” said Helm, a Denver native who lives in Polson.
He suggested celebrating by exercising our freedoms, including speech, religion and voting. He encouraged youth to honor America’s fallen military by “becoming the best you can be.”
“Rejoice in our freedom,” Helm said at a ceremony outside First Citizen’s Bank.Lake View Cemetery, state Sen. Albert Olszewski, R-Kalispell and a former military doctor, encouraged attendees to say a prayer of thanks for fallen veterans.
The U.S. began celebrating Decoration Day in the years following the Civil War to honor soldiers who died in the war. It gradually became known as Memorial Day.
Originally celebrated on May 30, Congress changed observance of the day in 1968 to the last Monday in May.
Over 1.1 million American soldiers have died in various conflicts over the years.
At Lake View Cemetery on Monday, May 29, a bell was rung once for each war since the Revolutionary War.
