Maj. Gen. William Kirkland could have begun his Memorial Day address by telling us about his Army career and the many medals he wore on his uniform.
Instead, he introduced himself simply enough.
“I am an American soldier,” Kirkland, 69, was saying Monday as the keynote speaker at the Memorial Day ceremony at Freedom Memorial Park, which is across Bragg Boulevard from the Airborne & Special Operations Museum. “I may not be able to run Longstreet and Gruber Road now, but I can still squeeze the trigger. There are people who will tell you this country should give up. But I believe this country is still fighting for you. When people have fear of their government, something just isn’t right.”
Kirkland is a proud American soldier, and Kirkland always will be.
He would remind those in attendance on this overcast day that once one of his teachers at Reid Ross High School, Class of 1971, told him he would not amount to much and would spend his life riding on the back of a garbage truck.
So much, if you will, for what that teacher had to say.
After graduating from N.C. State University, the son of an Army paratrooper joined the Army and earned a master strategic studies degree. He eventually worked closely with commanders in Iraq and Afghanistan to develop training requirement priorities for missions of the 3rd Army, 1st Cavalry Division, 1st and 3rd Infantry divisions, 82nd and 101st Airborne divisions and other support units.
His military medals include the Legion of Merit with two Oak Leaf clusters; the Meritorious Service Medal with an Oak Leaf cluster; the Army Commendation Medal with two Oak Leaf clusters; the Army Achievement Medal; the Overseas Service Medal; and the Army Parachutist Badge.
“I would say in my 34 years of service, I visited Arlington National Cemetery seven times,” he would say. “I listened seven times to taps. I hugged seven Gold Star mothers. I’m on the side of the red, white and blue, and I will defend it until the day of my last breath.”
There’s always something special about the Memorial Day observance in this park. My late father served in World War II and the Korean War. My late mother worked in Fort Bragg dental clinics for 35 years, and her fingerprints are on the Blue Star Highway Marker overlooking the park. They would expect me to be there.
A solemn observance, it always is.
But remembering our fallen military veterans matters. Remembering they gave their lives for our liberty resonates.
“This is emotional for me,” City Councilman Derrick Thompson, 62, would say before reading a proclamation on behalf of Mayor Mitch Colvin and the City Council. “I’m sure there are those out there who have fallen comrades, as I do.”
Thompson, who spent 22 years in the Army before retiring, was joined by council members Kathy Keefe Jensen, Brenda McNair and Mario Benavente. Also in attendance was former state Sen. Kirk deViere.
‘The ultimate sacrifice’
“I stand before you on this proud day of remembrance and ask that you join me in remembering those who made the ultimate sacrifice for the good of this great nation, but in truly reflecting on their legacy,” Ann Provencher, a veteran and Monday’s emcee, would say. “Sacred and hallowed ground at Arlington and places like the Ardennes, Normandy, Pearl Harbor and Manila are testament to the high cost of achieving and maintaining freedom around the globe.
“Gen. George Patton once said during a Memorial Day service, ‘In my mind we came here to thank God that men like these lived rather than regret that they died.’ Kindly embrace those words in their entirety.
“The lives of our fallen soldiers, our fathers, our mothers, our brothers, our sisters, our comrades were lives not lost in vain or anguish, for each life lost has contributed to the evolution of America as we know it today — a free nation, a strong nation, a nation that stands the tallest when we stand together,” Provencher would say. “I ask that on this somber occasion you not accept feelings of grief or affliction without encompassing feelings of honor, patriotism and pride. Though their lives were cut short, their contributions live on and inspire generations that follow. They have ensured that the Declaration of Independence holds true for everyone.”
Veterans hung on Provencher’s words.
Wreath presentations would be made by the Cardinal Gibbons Assembly of the Knights of Columbus at the World War I monument; by the Fayetteville Independent Light Infantry Company at the World War II monument; by the Sergeants Major Association at the Korean War monument; by the 173rd Airborne Brigade Association in remembrance of Fallen Sky Soldiers at the Vietnam War monument; by the Cape Fear Chapter of Military Officers Association of America at the Global War on Terrorism monument; by combat-wounded soldiers of Chapter 2226, Military Order of the Purple Heart, at the Purple Heart monument; by Rolling Thunder North Carolina Chapter 1 at the POW-MIA monument that included Don Talbot, who is a Vietnam veteran and the park’s curator; and by the Cumberland County Veterans Council that included Grilley Mitchell, an Army veteran and president of the Cumberland County Veterans Council and a Hope Mills commissioner at the All Services Dedication Stone.
And Rolling Thunder North Carolina Chapter 1 would remember all branches of service at the “missing man” table presentation.
Among those remembered by Provencher at the missing-man table were Sgt. Lester J. Moore of Cumberland County, who served in the Army during WWI and was lost July 20, 1945, near the Marianas Island; Lance Cpl. Joseph N. Hargrove with the U.S. Marines, a Mount Olive native lost May 15, 1975, in Cambodia during the Vietnam War; Petty Officer 2nd Class Junius B. Duncan of Whiteville, who served in the Navy and was lost Oct. 24, 1944, in the Netherlands East Indies; 2nd Lt. Carter A. Howell of Fayetteville and the Air Force, who was lost March 7, 1972, over Laos in the Vietnam War; and Machinist’s Mate 1st Class Lucian P. Thompson of Bertha, who was lost Sept. 5, 1942, near the Solomon Islands during WWII.
Epilogue
A last word from Ann Provencher.
“So, as we leave here today, let us recommit ourselves to keeping the memory of our fallen alive,” Provencher would say. “Let us educate our youth that their freedom was paid for at great expense, and that sacrifices are meaningless without remembrance. God bless all our departed heroes, their families — and God bless America.”
Bill Kirby Jr. can be reached at billkirby49@gmail.com or 910-624-1961.
