MORRISTOWN -- It was a ceremony of taps.The
21-member rifle squad tapped the stocks of the their weapons on Court
Street's asphalt Wednesday as they created a line, and then again as
the rifle officers from the Morris County Sheriff's Office performed a
ceremonial inspection, the sound echoing off the stone buildings of the
county complex.
At the end of Morris County's Memorial Day program, Sheriff's Capt. Carol Ackerman played taps to a hushed crowd.
"It
is a sad day indeed when servicemen and woman give their lives in the
line of duty,"said Freeholder Director Margaret Nordstrom. "Sad, of
course, for their families -- and sad for the rest of America, the rest
of us who have lost a loved one, a friend or a neighbor who was
committed to defending us and our nation."
Under bright sun and
an American flag flying overhead at half-staff, Nordstrom said,
"Without question, we owe all of these veterans -- in particular those
of you who are seated here today -- and the family members of two of
our fallen heroes, an enormous gratitude for your devotion, your
patriotism and your sacrifices."
The county freeholders presented
13 Distinguished Service Medals to veterans, including two to the
parents of two Marines who died in Iraq, Lance Cpl. Donald S. Brown, of
Roxbury, and Lance Cpl. Christopher Cosgrove, of Hanover. The county
has presented more than 8,350 medals to service members.
Philip
Brown said his son Donald was always full of life and lived every day
to the fullest. The news of his death was shocking, he said.
"I
had no idea why they were at my house," he recalled about greeting the
military officers who brought the family the news of his death.
During
the raising of the American flag, Philip Brown stood ramrod straight
with his shoulders back and his face both filled with pride and torn
with sorrow.
Monsignor Patrick Brown of St. Vincent DePaul
Church, who gave the invocation, said before the prayer that he was in
Arlington National Cemetery for the funeral of a family friend, Army
Staff Sgt. Paul Latourney of New York, who was killed in Iraq in March.
Brown
said he was explaining to the soldier's 11-year-old son that his father
was buried in a place with many others who had acted bravely. He said
the boy responded, "If we are lucky, we will all get a chance to be
brave."
Morris Plains Mayor Frank Druetzler, a former freeholder, was the main speaker.
"Today
in front of this historic Morris County Courthouse, and so very near to
where much of the fighting for our freedom took place over 230 years
ago ... we demonstrate our appreciation to the fallen warriors of that
War of Independence and to the fallen heroes in wars since then," he
said.
"Ours has been a nation whose citizens willingly and
without hesitation shed their own blood to establish liberty,"Drutzler
said. "We are derived from a nation of patriots."
County medals
were presented to the following: Navy veteran Christopher U. Andrews,
of Kinnelon, who served on the USS Independence in the first Gulf war;
Army Capt. Matthew Clay Bartlett, of Montville, an Iraq veteran; Marine
Lance Cpl. Drew W. Daddio, of Parsippany, an Iraq veteran; Marine Cpl.
Donald J. Fantasia, of Whippany, an Iraq veteran; U.S. Coast Guard
Seaman Jeffrey Greco, of Flanders; Marine Cpl. Velma D. Hodge, of
Netcong; Army National Guard Staff Sgt. Eugene Kuhar, of Jefferson, a
Vietnam and Iraq veteran; Marine Lance Cpl. Jacquel R. Miranda, of
Hopatcong, an Iraq veteran; retired Air Force pilot Scott C. Stebbins,
Iraq veteran; Marine Lance Cpl. Kyle C. Witty, of Montville, Iraq
veteran; and Marine Lance Cpl. Remigiusz Wojdala, of Denville, an Iraq
veteran who with Witty was on the same patrol when Cosgrove was killed
on Oct. 1, 2006.
