Memorial Day Ceremony at the Virginia War Memorial

Ceremony begins at 10:00 AM.

May 19, 2015; 8:19 AM • by Richard Hayes

Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe will deliver the keynote address at the Memorial Day Ceremony on Monday, May 25 at the Virginia War Memorial.

The ceremony will start at 10:00 and will honor and remember those that have died while serving our country including the four Virginians killed since last year’s Memorial Day.

The ceremony will include special recognition of the four Virginians who have lost their lives in the ongoing Global War on Terrorism since Memorial Day 2014. Each of their names will be read by Colonel Terrence W. Singleton of the 80th Training Command, U.S. Army Reserve, as the ship’s bell from the USS Virginia tolls.

Those to be remembered are: Major Michael J. Donahue, U.S. Army, Lynchburg; Major General Harold J. Green, U.S. Army, Falls Church; Staff Sergeant David H. Stewart, U.S. Marine Corps Stafford; and Sergeant Charles C. Strong, U.S. Marine Corps, Suffolk.

Following patriotic music played by the 392nd Army Band of Fort Lee, the Commonwealth’s Memorial Day Ceremony will be called to order by Rick Oertel, past commander, American Legion 11th District. Webster Ballard, president of the Military Retirees Club of Richmond,
will lead the Pledge of Allegiance, and the National Anthem will be sung by the Jubilation Choir.

The Honorable John M. O’Bannon, III, chairman of the Virginia War Memorial Board, will welcome attendees.

The ceremony will conclude in the War Memorial’s Shrine of Memory for the presentation of memorial wreathes accompanied by music by the St. Andrew’s Legion Pipes and Drums, a rifle salute by the James S. Slay Detachment, Marine Corps League, and playing of TAPS by Dr. Tommy South of Bugles Across America.

The Virginia War Memoria, located at 621 South Belvidere Street, will be open extended hours from 9 a.m. until 7 p.m. on Memorial Day. Admission is free. Parking is available in the Memorial lot, in the Virginia Housing and Development Authority lot and deck next door, and in the Afton Chemical Corporation lot at Spring and Belvidere Streets.

The public is also invited to enjoy a free concert of patriotic music performed by the Thomas Jefferson High School Corps of Cadets Alumni Band at 2 p.m. and to tour the exhibits and experience the films shown in the Paul and Phyllis Galanti Education Center all day.

For more information, please call 804.786.2060 or visit www.vawarmemorial.org .

Image: Ross Catrow

May 19, 2015 8:19 AM · in Fan of the Fan and Hills and Heights 0