Major General Marvin Jay Barry told participants at the Carbon County Memorial Day service held in Josiah White Park, Jim Thorpe, to remember.

“They lie quietly, these men and women whom we honor. But their deeds and sacrifices cry out loudly to each of us and we hear their voices blended as one. ‘Do not forget us!’ They cry in a single voice. ‘Do not forget why we lived and why we died.’ We will not forget,” Barry said.

“As fellow Americans, we owe them a great deal; we owe them our very existence, for they died so that others can live to carry on their ideas, their hopes, and their dreams. There is one dream that they all envisioned: freedom.”

Christine LeClair, director at Carbon County Veterans Affairs emceed the ceremony, introducing each guest. Other speakers included state Rep. Doyle Heffley, Carbon County Commissioner Rocky Ahner, and Carol Etheridge from Rep. Susan Wild’s office.

Ahner said that Memorial Day is his favorite holiday because it brings people out to remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice.

“Memorial Day is my favorite holiday, but there are 364 other day in the year that we should remember our military and the ones that gave their lives for our country,” he said.

Today, everyone has a front door to their home. Some are wooden, some steel or fiberglass, but for the thousands of men and women who died for this country, their front door is stone.

“What’s the difference between their front door and ours?” Ahner asked. “They entered theirs once so we can walk through ours every day freely in the greatest, most powerful country in the world.”

Heffley reflected on the remembrance.

“We remember the fallen; those that gave that last full measure of devotion. It’s important that we take the time to reflect on their sacrifice, and that we live up to the standards that they set as a community and as a nation,” Heffley said. “It’s also a time that we carry the colors forward, carry their mission forward, to remain a free nation, and also to take care of our veterans.”

Carol Etheridge, representing the offices of Rep. U.S. Susan Wild, said, “It’s an honor to be here to remember those who have served and given so much.”

Gilbert Henry of the Dolon-Jones-Martino American Legion Post 304, Jim Thorpe, offered the invocation and benediction.

Angela Nardini sang the Star Spangled Banner and God Bless America.

The ceremony concluded with members of the Carbon County UVO and the American Legion serving as color guard and offering a the rifle salute, with Bill Diehm playing taps on the bugle.