FORT SNELING NATIONAL CEMETERY — Enduring rain was a simple sacrifice to honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice this Memorial Day, as hundreds of people gathered Monday at Fort Snelling National Cemetery to reflect and remember.
“Across Minnesota these days, people are thinking, ‘I hope the rain stops so I can go boating, play golf, grill out,’” Gov. Tim Walz said. “And I don’t say that disparagingly, but I say that because it’s a precious gift that they’ve been given.”
It was a somber ceremony this year, with a special focus on lives lost in Normandy, such as Jaqueline Simmons’ father.
“As a young girl growing up without a father and wishing they were missing, I always thought that, and that they would come home,” she said. ‘It is difficult. It’s even hard today, you know, that I never knew him.’
Next week marks 80 years since the Allies landed in Normandy.
“At a place like Fort Snelling, we feel the gravity of the sacrifices,” Sen. Amy Klobuchar told the crowd. “People who risk everything.”
Volunteers spent time throughout the weekend placing American flags at every headstone in the cemetery. about 200,000 of them. It was a moving sight for those attending the annual Memorial Day service.
“There’s not much that really brings a tear to my eye, other than Fort Snelling Cemetery,” said military veteran Brian Greenwood. “The sacrifice of all these men and women here is what really speaks to me.”
Greenwood was accompanied by his wife Jenny and son Truman. Greenwood has six family members buried at Fort Snelling.
“I enjoy bringing my son here so he can get that sense of patriotism in his life,” he added.
22-year-old Army veteran Neil Pence visits the cemetery every time he is at the airport.
“When I look at these graves it kills me,” he said. “This meaning here is: I have served and I have died for my country and that is what it is all about: serving. And when you die, you have given the ultimate, everything. That is what it is all about. Yours holding land and making sure it is good.” free if it’s not free it’s not worth going after.”
Beret Leone
