Veterans hope they won’t be forgotten

Roy Pressley saw lots of traffic on Interstate 40 as he made his way from Waynesville to Wake Forest for Monday’s Memorial Day observance.

“I hope they had been somewhere honoring our war dead. I think that was too much to ask for,” Pressley said.

But that note of pessimism didn’t diminish the fervor with which the past state commander of the American Legion celebrated the sacrifices of soldiers, seamen, marines and airmen.

“The torch has passed from one great generation to another, to another and finally to today’s generation,” Pressley said.

“The weapons have changed, but the reasons we fight have not changed.”

Monday’s brief ceremony marked the fifth Memorial Day Wake Foresters have gathered before the large stone memorial on the edge of the Heritage Golf Course.

Amy Huss, regent of the Gen. James Moore Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, explained the origins of Memorial Day, which began in 1868 as a tribute to Union soldiers who died in the War Between the States.

The service was punctuated by a moment of silence by all those in attendance, including a healthy number of veterans who lined the outer edges of the crowd.

Among those veterans was retired Lt. Col. Robert Maxey, who served in the U.S. Marine Corps.

Maxey pointed to the names on the memorial wall behind him and told the crowd he didn’t know a single person listed on the wall. But he said honoring them was important regardless.

“We set aside a day to honor them because we must,” Maxey said.

With the continuing military action in Iraq and Afghanistan, local veterans’ organizations have become increasingly active.

Rich Heroux, a member of VFW Post 8466, told the crowd about efforts to distribute care packages to members of the 113th Field Artillery Regiment, based in Youngsville and Louisburg.

That unit is currently deployed in the Middle East as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

The VFW and the American Legion have distributed about 100 pounds of care packages a month to the unit since Christmas. Heroux said that effort will continue until the unit’s scheduled return to the United States in September.