Veterans, active military, and community members gathered on Monday for the annual Memorial Day Ceremony at the Montana Veterans Memorial in Great Falls.
Lt. Colonel Frances “Frankie” Mercado, commander of the 490th Missile Squadron at Malmstrom Air Force Base was the keynote speaker at Monday’s ceremony.
WATCH THE VIDEO:
“Moments like today where we can take time to reflect on what makes our nation so great and those who have paid that price, who were unable to come home to their families and share those times that we have. It's our responsibility to be able to take the time and remind ourselves that they are never forgotten,” said Lt. Colonel Mercado.
Also at Monday’s ceremony was Durl J. Gibbs, a World War II veteran.
“By the time I got out of high school, the Army was waiting for me,” Gibbs said.
Gibbs graduated from high school in 1944, and at the age of 19 he enlisted in the U.S. Army. He will be 100 years old this September.
“I took a few months of basic training, then I was heading for the South Pacific.”
Durl shared some of his experience serving in the U.S. Army, specifically in the Battle of Okinawa.
“A Japanese soldier managed to get to our foxhole one night and it ended up being a hand-to-hand deal. He gave his life at our foxhole for his country.”
Since surviving the Battle of Okinawa 80 years ago, Durl reflects on his encounter with this Japanese soldier for the same reason we reflect on all the soldiers who lost their lives in war.
The morning after that Japanese soldier died at their foxhole, Gibbs picked up a small pouch that the solider was carrying. More than 70 years later, he returned to Okinawa and reunited the pouch with the soldier’s daughter who was 2 years old at the time of the war.
Durl’s son, Wes Gibbs, wrote the book A Soldier’s Journey, telling his father’s story.
