Memorial Day crowd asked to 'pick up that torch' of the fallen, honor all who 'left something on the battlefield'

After the ceremony, attendees waked among the stone tablets engraved with names of Midway residents killed in wars.

Citizens at today's Memorial Day ceremony at the Midway Cemetery were asked to remember the lost potential of the lives given for the nation, to elect officials who understand "the real cost of going to war," and to "pick up that torch that these gallant people have handed to us."

So said speaker Carl Rollins, former Midway mayor, magistrate and state representative, and Air Force veteran of the Vietnam War, a controversial conflict.

Carl Rollins, Vietnam veteran and former public official, spoke.

"I wasn't thrilled about going, but back then, we had the draft," Rollins recalled, noting that some made another choice: "I had no qualms about those who went to Canada."

Noting the 1.3 million American lives lost in war, Rollins told the crowd, "You think about the potential that's lost every time we lose one life." Later, he said today's Americans should pick up the fallen ones' torch "and make this country, our state and our community, live up to its potential."

Memorial Day is meant to honor the fallen, but its observances often include recognition of others who served. Rollins said Americans should also remember those wounded in battle: "There are a lot of people who returned home and left something on the battlefield."

He said that includes those with post-traumatic stress disorder, which doesn't place them on the official list of wounded. "They brought the battlefield home with them," Rollins said, "so we need to keep them in our prayers."

Before Rollins spoke, City Council Member Logan Nance, an Army veteran of Afghanistan, passed around a microphone for attendees to remember veterans in their families.

Doris Buckler of Lexington recalled her brother, Navy veteran
Edward "Pete" Woodroof of Midway, who died March 26 at 74.

"There is no bigger showing of love than to give your life for someone else," said Mayor Grayson Vandegrift, the master of ceremonies.

Rollins said the event marked the first time he had spoken to a group at the cemetery since July 4, 1997, when he was mayor and the city dedicated its memorial to Midway veterans after more than $30,000 was raised to fund it.

"I wish we could stop adding names, because I wish we could stop fighting wars," he said.

Rollins recounted the history of America's wars since the Civil War, which spawned separate Union and Confederate "decoration day" observances that became unified after World War I.

He said his grandfather and step-grandfather fought the Germans in the same unit in that war, and fought each other when his step-grandfather would get a letter from his grandmother.