Pandemic casts pall across Memorial Day

SALEM — The COVID-19 pandemic has cast a shadow across Memorial Day, said Marine Corps veteran and Salem Veterans Council member Joseph Cole and other speakers at a small ceremony held under gray skies in Greenlawn Cemetery Monday morning.

Cole, who acted as the emcee, noted how the aging, elderly veteran population has been ravaged by the pandemic during a year which marks the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II. The outbreak continues to affect veterans' nursing homes across the country and in the Bay State, and many older veterans remain at home or in lockdown.

The ceremony was kept small due to public health concerns and was recorded to be broadcast on SATV.

In stark contrast to years past when veterans, residents, officials and Salem High band members would jam the hill by the Civil War monument, Monday's event was attended by only about 30 people, many of them speakers or those related to them. Everyone wore masks and stood well apart from each other.

Mayor Kim Driscoll said it was still necessary for the community to come together to recognize and thank those who paid the ultimate sacrifice.

"It would be lost on me," Driscoll said, "if I didn't sort of think about what's happening today, and the fact that we aren't all able to physically gather here."

She thanked everyone for undertaking individual acts for the greater good amid the pandemic. "I think it speaks volumes as a community that we, even despite a global pandemic, have found a way to come together to recognize, honor and pay tribute to those who lost their lives on behalf of us and a very grateful nation," said Driscoll.

Salem's subdued Memorial Day ceremony was echoed in other North Shore communities during the COVID-19 pandemic, which had claimed the lives of 6,372 Massachusetts residents as of Sunday.

Danvers did not hold its typical parade and Town Hall ceremony, but instead held a brief rolling caravan of police cruisers, military vehicles, fire trucks and veterans' vehicles starting at Town Hall. The caravan passed by the cemetery on High Street, circled around Danvers Square, then headed back to Town Hall.

Some people stood by their cars on High Street or in the Square as the caravan rolled by. A virtual Memorial Day Ceremony was broadcast by Danvers Community Access Television.

Peabody also broadcast an abridged ceremony from Cedar Grove Cemetery with Mayor Ted Bettencourt and members of the Peabody Veterans Council and the city's Veterans Services Director, Steve Patten.

"Today is a day we remember those that have served and those that have passed," Bettencourt said. "And the best we can do, as has been said, is to remember, celebrate their lives, celebrate their service and just remember what they've meant."

'A very deep respect'

In Swampscott, Gov. Charlie Baker, the chairman of the Select Board, Peter Spellios, Select Board member Naomi Dreeben, and Town Administrator Sean Fitzgerald gave some remarks in a morning ceremony in Swampscott Cemetery. The ceremony was videotaped and will be played on local access television, Fitzgerald said.

"We wanted to do something for the community because it's a different year here," said Fitzgerald in an interview.

Over the weekend, 337 "Our Fallen Hero" posterboard markers with photos and stories of Massachusetts service members who have lost their lives since 9/11 were placed on the lawn adjacent to Town Hall on Monument Avenue.

Swampscott and Lynn Director of Veterans Services Michael Sweeney came up with the idea to bring the Military Friends Foundation's Hero's Salute to Swampscott for the first time, Fitzgerald said.

At 3 p.m., Fitzgerald and Sweeney held a brief wreath laying ceremony at the markers of the Marine Capt. Jennifer Harris, who was killed in a helicopter crash during her third tour in Iraq on Feb. 7, 2007, and Army SPC Jared Raymond, who was killed when a makeshift bomb exploded near his M1A2 Abrams Tank on Sept. 19, 2006.

Jared Raymond's mother, Jaclyn Raymond, and Jennifer Harris's father, Raymond Harris, were on hand for the brief ceremony.

"Today is a bittersweet day," Jaclyn Raymond said. Memorial Day before her son went into the military was something she didn't think much about, like many people. "Since my son went in, I have a very deep respect for Memorial Day and the veterans."

What might have been

In Salem, those giving remarks included state Sen. Joan Lovely, D-Salem, state Rep. Paul Tucker, D-Salem, U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Salem, and Francisco Urena of Massachusetts Secretary of Veterans Services.

Urena noted the display in front of Swampscott Town Hall, something he visited with his children ages 2 and 5 on Sunday. Over the past five years, Urena has gotten to know some of these Gold Star families quite well, he said, as he accompanies them when a service member's remains are returned home.

On the lawn in Swampscott, he said his son, Max, 5, gravitated to the pictures of tanks, goggles and planes. Max noted the pictures were all different, but Urena said he thought: "one common thread is how similar these families are, the salt-of-the-earth families that you sadly get to know."

Moulton recalled the toll of the pandemic, but one silver lining is that he's been able to stay home with his wife and 19-month-old daughter, Emmy.

The Iraq War Marine Corps veteran said this week he has been thinking about Lance Corporal Larry Wells, whose body he found in a cemetery during the Battle of Najaf 16 years ago. He noted that Wells, an affable young Marine from Florida, "was at his best doing his own comedy act, often making fun of himself to the enjoyment of all the rest of us."

When he died young, those in his platoon thought how they would never get to laugh with Wells again, Moulton said. Those like Wells' greatest sacrifice was not just what they had been, but what they might become.

Unfortunately, the burden of war, Moulton said, almost always falls to the young.

"People like Larry, who was a great son, a great Marine, a great American, I think also, he would have been a great dad," Moulton said.