About 75 people gathered at small cemetery on Memorial Day to honor those who died in service to our nation.
Temperatures soared into the 80s under cloudless skies as a crowd that included village dignitaries, officials from , Boy Scouts from Troop 401, residents and war veterans gathered at Knopf Cemetery to pay tribute to those who died serving the nation.
Wearing dark sunglasses and speaking in the shade of a tall pine tree, Village President Jeff Braiman reminded the crowd that we “owe respect” those who served our country and that “we all need to do our part to uphold American ideals.”
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During the brief ceremony, members of Boy Scout Troop 401 presented colors, raised a new flag to fly over the cemetery and burned old flags.
Scout members read the Gettysburg Address, The Bill of Rights and played "Taps."
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And when the Rev. Margaret Gramley of Kingswood United Methodist Church asked any veterans in the crowd to raise their hands, Ed Muldoon, a former Navy Corpsman who served from 1967 to 1971, proudly raised his.
Wearing a blue cap and a red, white and blue shirt that featured stars and stripes on its sleeve, the Buffalo Grove resident recounted his service and talked about the history of the holiday.
“It is a memorial,” he said. “It’s got a long-time history, going back to 1868.”
Although he served during the Vietnam War, Muldoon was not stationed there.
“I was actually stained on the East Coast, amphibious Navy,” he said.
Asked if the day reminded him of friends who fought and died, he had a quick, one-word answer.
“Yes.”
His eyes said the rest.
