Coming to Franklin to honor the fallen has become an annual journey for a Morgantown resident.
Mark Murray has spent the last few years coming to Franklin on Memorial Day to pay his respects to veterans whose lives were lost in battle.
The Vietnam veteran has plenty of family members who served in the armed forces, including his father and uncles.
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Murray fears the true meaning of the day will slip away with each generation and he wants to do his part to help make sure that doesn’t happen, he said.
“I do this for respect of my fallen brothers,” he said.
Hundreds of people attended the annual Memorial Day event in Franklin on Monday. People sat lawn chairs among crosses painted with the names of fallen Johnson County service members to hear a message of remembrance and respect from local veterans’ organizations and an Operation Desert Shield veteran.
The Forty and Eight band played patriotic songs, including “The Star Spangled Banner.” Auxiliaries from the Franklin American Legion and the Whiteland VFW, a Daughters of the American Revolution Chapter and the veterans committee of the Franklin Elk Lodge placed memorial wreaths. Taps was played and a rifle salute was done to honor the fallen.
Jim Phillips researched and spoke about individuals who lost their lives in service to the country. He talked about a World War I pilot who was the first to receive a medal of honor and of a military nurse who lost her life when the hospital where she was serving in Vietnam was struck. And he spoke about the four Marines who lost their lives when a helicopter they were riding in crashed during training earlier this year. He shared their stories during the event.
Even to people who are not a member of a Gold Star family or who do not know someone personally fallen in the line of duty, their sacrifice affects everyone, Phillips said.
“We are their legacy,” he said.
Each local veteran who has died in battle has their named painted on a cross that American Legion members pounded into the ground in the courthouse lawn about a week ago. County veterans who lost their lives in the Revolutionary War, Spanish-American War and Civil War all share a large cross.
Family members and friends adorned some of the 165 crosses with flowers and stopped to gaze at the name of their loved ones. Charles Crocker made 50 new crosses to replace aging ones as part of his Eagle Scout project this year.
Every name on the cross belongs to a family in Johnson County, and getting the crosses in the ground is part of the American Legion’s mission to make sure that the true meaning of Memorial Day does not get lost in a three-day weekend, post commander Randy Weathers said.
“It is not about opening the pool and having a party,” he said.
When a local resident dies in battle, the death is fresh and is covered by news outlets.
Bit by bit, people forget, Weathers said.
The crosses and the annual Memorial Day service make sure that people remember what the day is about and give thanks to the people who have fallen, he said.
“It is our mission to make sure no one forgets,” Weathers said.
