Remembering the fallen

There’s a difference between Memorial Day and Veterans Day, Marine Gary Todd told attendees at Monday’s Memorial Day service at the West Hawaii Veterans Cemetery.

“Veterans Day remembers all those who served,” Todd said. “Memorial Day remembers those who gave the last full measure of devotion.”

Todd was one of two main speakers during the ceremony, which a couple of hundred people attended. Kona resident and Disabled American Veterans Chapter 7 member Clayton Punahaole also spoke. Todd said his namesake, who was his father’s co-pilot during World War II, died on his first mission as pilot. But Todd’s connection to fallen servicemen and servicewomen wasn’t just through his father. Todd served in Vietnam, and recalled a Tuesday night when he went on patrol with 44 other men. Only 19 returned, the rest had been killed or wounded.

“Those who died in war did not give their lives,” Todd said. “Their lives were taken.”

Memorial Day is for remembering and honoring those men and women, he added.

Punahaole recounted his service with the Air Force, from which he retired in the 1990s, as well as health problems that left him suffering from depression after losing his eyesight in 2005. He encouraged veterans and other ceremony attendees not to let such problems discourage them.

“Keep your mind active, keep your body physically strong,” Punahaole said. “Never sit around and wait for the end to come. Be productive to the last days.”

Barbara Lewis meditated on the hope, expressed each year during the Memorial Day service, that servicemen and servicewomen’s deaths will lead to peace.

“We gather today to remember our American brothers and sisters, who have made the ultimate sacrifice on the battlefield,” Lewis said. “The message reiterated year after year at this ceremony and across the nation is that these lives were not lost in vain.”

She asked for the United States to become a country that is an advocate of peace.

“Where there are tragedy and oppression, let there be freedom and justice,” she said. “Where there are strife and discord, let there be harmony and peace.”

Billy Paris opened the ceremony, noting people had gathered Monday to honor people who died serving their country, as well as family members who got “that awful message” that a relative would not be returning from war.

Oahu-based choir Melemai Kapuuwaimai sang several songs during the ceremony, as well as performed hula. Choir members sang World War II standards after the ceremony, providing entertainment during the potluck lunch.