Community joins in remembering fallen
A short service was led by retired Lutheran Minister
Leonard Dalberg.
Dalberg
told of the biblical term “Ebenezer,” a stone raised by Samuel to commemorate
the divine assistance provided to biblical Israel in its fight against the
Philistines. Dalberg
said, “We should raise our Ebenezer” to honor those who have given their lives
for our freedoms.
Army Maj. Gen. Bruce Boles addressed those gathered,
speaking of the history of the holiday and of the many men buried at Ballard
Cemetery who had served the military.
“On Memorial Day we remember,” said Boles of all who have
gone before.
Boles told the crowd that the first Memorial Day was just
after the Civil War and took place in Columbus, Mo., in May 1865. Explaining that when a
number of women who had lost husbands, sons, and brothers had gathered at a
cemetery to decorate the graves of their relatives, they noticed that a number
of graves of Union soldiers were unkempt. These women went on to decorate the graves of
those Union soldiers as they had the graves of Confederate soldiers.
In 1888, what was known as Decoration Day then was
changed by Congress to Memorial Day, and was dedicated to the remembrance of
all soldiers who had given their lives in the defense of our freedoms.
A color guard provided by American
Legion Post 160 of Santa Ynez fired a 15 gun salute to fallen members of the
U.S. armed services, and a lone bugler sounded “taps” at the conclusion of the
service.