Memorial Day is a stark reminder of the cost of freedom.

Commander Kevin Long reminded audience members during Memorial Day services held Monday morning in the upper Lehighton Park Amphitheater that we should never fall short in honoring the memories of our fallen brave.

“When we express our gratitude, let us never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter the words, but to live by them,” Long said. “For every single day we get to enjoy all the things that are offered to us it must be never forgotten that an unpayable debt has been paid for that very freedom we are given.”

Mayor Clark Ritter thanked everyone in attendance for gathering to remember those who gave the ultimate sacrifice.

Guest speaker Captain Phillip “Doug” Chapman, Co. “C,” 109th Infantry, 28th Division, who currently serves as chaplain for that unit, said that three years after the Civil War ended on May 5, 1868, the head of an organization of Union veterans, the Grand Army of the Republic, established Decoration Day as a time for the nation to decorate the graves of the war dead with flowers.

Chapman said that Maj. Gen. John A. Logan declared it should be May 30, and added it’s believed the date was chosen because flowers would be in bloom all over the country.

He said there were three main objectives: To nurture the living, care for the wounded, and honor the dead.

“There is evil in the world that does not listen to reason, logic or diplomacy; all it knows is violence and peace requires that evil be met by a greater force,” Chapman said. “Peace comes with a cost. One does not need to look far to measure that cost.”

Chapman said that 215 soldiers during World War II, 22 service members during Korea and nine service members during Vietnam, all from Carbon County, “not some far place away, paid the ultimate sacrifice, gave the full measure, demonstrated love to its greatest degree, no greater love than this.”

“Since 2001, over 200 service members from the 28th ID, including nine from my unit, Pennsylvania bears witness, testifies to the cost of peace.”

Chapman said that on July 14, 1918, a German assault collided with the main force of the 28th, the fighting became bitter hand-to-hand combat. The 28th repelled the German forces and decisively defeated their enemy.

However, he said four isolated companies of the 109th and 110th Infantry stationed on the first defensive line suffered heavy losses. After the battle, General John Pershing, commander of the American Expeditionary Force, visited the battlefield and declared that the 28th soldiers were “Men of Iron” and named the 28th ID as his “Iron Division.”

“Their character and spirit were like iron,” Chapman said. “Talking with soldiers in my unit who have fought in Iraq and Afghanistan, in combat the fight is for the life of the one to your right and left.”

Chapman noted that “honoring the dead is a polarizing duty, one for the living.”

“The soldiers of the Iron division demonstrated character and spirit, qualities that made life possible on the battlefield,” he said. “Today, I ask you what qualities, character and spirit do you have to encourage life in your family, community and country?

Chapman said that as service members fight for the life of one another on the battlefield, so should we fight for the lives of one another on the home front.

“As I said earlier, it is believed the date of Memorial Day was chosen because flowers would be in bloom all over the country,” he said. “From death comes life.

“Honor our dead with more than flags, songs, and military honors. Honor by the way we live, how we love our family and community, may we by our character and spirit bloom like the flowers, and bringing life everywhere we go.”

The ringing of the bell followed.

Long said that since the first shot was fired that started the Revolutionary War, to the last shot in the War on Terror, America has been involved in 12 wars. He honored those fallen comrades by ringing of the bell.