Memorial Day returns to roots: Honoring the fallen
Flags on median recall the departed for veterans of four wars
When residents on Allenhurst Road decided to decorate the street’s median with small American flags for Memorial Day this year, it dawned on Neil O’Rourke just how appropriate that would be for his quaint little block in the city’s University Heights neighborhood.
O’Rourke is an Army veteran, who also served in the Merchant Marines during the Vietnam War.
His next door neighbor, David State, is a veteran of the Iraq War.
There’s a World War II veteran a couple of homes up, another across the street, a Vietnam vet a few houses away, and at the end of the block, Larry Cohen, who served in the Air Force during the Korean War.
“We never really talk about anything veteran-wise,” said O’Rourke, a retired auditor with the city. “It’s just a mutual respect, and I think the neighbors feel the same way.”
O’Rourke’s Allenhurst neighbor, Elizabeth Brown, wanted to do something a little special for Memorial Day, aside from the traditional parades and backyard picnics.
With the U.S. still fighting two wars overseas, Brown sent a letter to the 30-plus homes in the neighborhood that runs between Main Street and Kenmore Avenue, near the University at Buffalo South Campus.
She asked her neighbors to place a flag on the median in remembrance of a fallen soldier, or simply a loved one lost.
“I think Memorial Day needs to get back to the place that it is,” Brown said. “We should be thinking about those that lost their lives.”
The veterans of Allenhurst — who represent four U.S. wars — can appreciate that sentiment.
O’Rourke, 69, was drafted in 1959 and spent three years in the Army. He was in the Merchant Marines mid-to late-’60s.
State, 46, is an attorney who joined the Army National Guard in 1997 and spent 2005 in Iraq with the Army JAG Corps, prosecuting war crimes.
Cohen, 80, a former steamship captain, served in the Air Force from 1948 to 1950. He was recalled to duty in 1951, but never saw combat in Korea.
They talked a little bit Sunday about the wars of their generation, from the soldier casualties to the lengthy tours of duty during World War II to the ability of today’s servicemen and women to keep connected to home via e-mail.
There are a lot of differences.
O’Rourke remembered the bitterness toward American soldiers returning home from Vietnam. State, on the other hand, recalled how people clapped as he walked through airports in uniform.
“Completely different,” said State, an assistant in the state attorney general’s office in Buffalo. “We just got a great reception coming home, compared to the Vietnam era.”
But the Allenhurst vets notice similarities in U.S. veterans regardless of the era.
It’s their selfless service.
“That’s what I see,” State said, “especially in the World War II guys. They’re humble. They don’t want to talk about their service. They don’t want recognition for it.”
WNY Marks Memorial Day
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