Americans urged to enjoy their 'Chicken Fried' on Memorial Day
May 31—Residents braved heat and humidity to attend a somber remembrance of the nation's fallen warriors during a Memorial Day ceremony sponsored by the Veterans Council of the Golden Isles Monday.
Following the opening proceedings, which included the presentation of the colors, a performance of the "Star-Spangled Banner" and the Armed Forces Medley — during which members of the U.S. Army, Navy, Coast Guard, Marines and Air Force rose to represent their branches — council Chairman Bennie Williams introduced Col. AJ Brasseur, the keynote speaker.
A native of South Bend, Indiana, Brasseur is commander of the U.S. Air Force's Office of Special Intelligence Academy at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Brunswick.
He gave a brief history of Memorial Day, which started in 1868 as a day observed by the states on different days to remember those who died in the American Civil War, the nation's bloodiest conflict. Similar observances spread across the states and were eventually codified into federal law as a single holiday in 1971, Brasseur said.
Rather than offer platitudes or speculate on the motivations of the fallen, Brasseur simply read aloud the oath enlisted soldiers take when they enter the service: "I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the president of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God."
One does not need to speculate about their motives to see they are heroes, Brasseur said.
He quoted lyrics from the song "Chicken Fried" by the Zac Brown Band. Ever since seeing the band in concert, he has connected part of the song which, in his opinion, sounds almost like a prayer for veterans on Memorial Day. In part, the lyrics read: "May freedom forever fly, let it ring. Salute the ones who died, the ones that give their lives so we don't have to sacrifice."
In closing, he urged citizens to "continue to enjoy the 'Chicken Fried' they afforded us."
The veterans council awarded the annual American Patriot Award to The News' Terry Dickson during the ceremony.
"You folks are fortunate," Dickson joked with the audience upon taking the podium. "I seem to have forgotten my glasses, and I appear to have misplaced my speech."
Dickson served in the Vietnam War, leading a light infantry squad and earning the Combat Infantry Badge. He recalled the first shot fired at him. It was personal to him, Dickson said, although perhaps not to the assailant.
Formerly employed by the Florida Times Union, Dickson's career as an award-winning newspaper photographer brought him to The News in 2019, where he still works as a reporter and photographer and pens a weekly column.
Of his career in the press, Dickson easily identified the highs and lows. The low was by far the 1977 collapse of the Kelly Barnes Dam in Toccoa, Georgia, which killed 39 people. He covered the disaster for his hometown paper in Anderson, South Carolina.
While he's covered a few mass killings, a mass wedding of five couples held in Anderson was likely the high point of his journalistic career, he said.