The Chattanooga Area Veterans Council invites all citizens to the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Memorial Day Commemoration at the Chattanooga National Cemetery at 11 a.m. on Monday. All parking is at the Tennessee National Guard Armory on S. Holtzclaw Avenue; shuttles will provide transportation to the cemetery. No public parking will be available at the cemetery as former parking area are being utilized for burial expansion.
Rick Williams, American Legion Post 107, Soddy-Daisy, Commander will preside and Vietnam Veterans of America, Chapter # 203 will serve as the official Honor Guard. A ‘Massing of the Colors’ will be coordinated by Alan Syler, Commander of the USS Carbonero Base Submarine Veterans and the acclaimed Choo-Choo Chorus will provide the music, including a closing rendition of ‘God Bless America,’ a crowd favorite from previous years.
Memorial Day honors the members of our armed forces who have died in the nation’s wars or as a result of their service. It is appropriate that the Chattanooga National Cemetery is the site of the commemoration as its hallowed hills are the final resting place for patriots who gave their ‘last full measure of devotion’ in every major conflict since the United States Civil War.
The 2023 Memorial Day Ceremony honors all fallen patriots with a special recognition of the Korean Conflict as our community prepares to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the 1953 armistice ending that war. Maranda Wilkinson, Director of Education and Public Programming at the National Medal of Honor Heritage Center, is the featured speaker and will rely on her extensive background with the Korean War Legacy Foundation as she focuses on the United States’ oft-forgotten war.
The public is also invited to help place United States flags on all graves, beginning on Friday morning, at 7 a.m.. Flags will be removed on Tuesday, May 30 and volunteers are requested to assist on that morning also.
For additional information, contact Linda Moss Mines, Secretary, CAVC at localhistorycounts@gmail.com.
Maranda Wilkinson