Hundreds pay Memorial Day respects at South Florida National Cemetery

A police helicopter did a flyby. Reveille and Taps sounded though the trees. Honor guards marched and a former Air Force pilot who was shot down and captured in North Vietnam vowed the dead and missing would not be forgotten. Balloons were launched by an organization devoted to helping servicemen who suffer from the effects of Agent Orange in Southeast Asia.

At the South Florida National Cemetery in Lake Worth, an expansive, hallowed ground of honor and grace designed to memorialize the lives of more than 30,000 people who are laid to rest there, Memorial Day 2022 was unwaveringly a time for families and friends to remember those who served their country.

Similar scenes were repeated large and small Monday around South Florida, with parades in cities including Fort Lauderdale, Davie and Coral Springs, and observances sponsored by the City of Plantation and the Veterans of Foreign Wars west of Boca Raton.

At the national cemetery, six friends gathered with their dogs at the grave of Army Sgt. Jevon Hutchinson, a U.S. Army Reservist who did two tours in Afghanistan. He died seven years ago on Valentine’s Day in a local traffic accident.

“He was a friend,” said Ralph Banks of West Palm Beach. “He did two combat tours and passed away when he got home. This is the time of year we all get together … it’s our way to stay in touch with him.”

The cemetery is peacefully nestled amid stands of trees, with a pond as a centerpiece and narrow lanes that easily take visitors to gravesites. It is a place where both servicemen and family members are buried. It contains the remains of those who have been killed in action since 2009, said cemetery director Todd Newkirk.

Many of the hundreds who attended the ceremony, sponsored by the Palm Beach County Veterans Committee, expressed appreciation for the revival of Memorial Day observances, which were suspended two years ago due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Roy Madden, a U.S. Navy veteran who served between 1974 and 1979, said he was grateful the ceremonies have resumed.

“I’m glad to see there was such a big crowd,” he said.

His father, Edward, who served in the U.S. Army during World War II and in the Korean conflict, is buried in a private cemetery in Fort Lauderdale.

In his featured speech, William V. Acuri, a West Point graduate and B-52 pilot who was shot down over North Vietnam in 1972 and held for 55 days in the infamous Hỏa Lò Prison, dubbed by POWs as the “Hanoi Hilton,” said Memorial Day “is not our day to be honored.”

The day’s ceremonies, he said, belong to those servicemen and women who have moved on. Four of his West Point classmates were lost in the war; the remains of two of his crew members on the ill-fated flight were returned after the Vietnam War.

“We who came home won’t ever forget those who did not,” he said.

Asked in an interview if he believes the nation’s people, despite their political divisions, appreciate the sacrifices made by service people past and present, Acuri said: “I think they do.”

“For a long time I felt kind of guilty,” he said. “When we came home in ‘73 we got a welcome home. But the average soldier or sailor that went over there, they didn’t get a welcome home.

“You can disagree about the war and about the politics, but you can’t take it out on the soldiers that are doing their job.”

Agent Orange victims not forgotten

The Palm Beach Agent Orange Association conducted a symbolic balloon release to dramatize the impact of soldiers’ exposure to the deadly chemical used by the U.S. military to defoliate areas of Vietnam.

The association’s objective is to remember and honor veterans and families who lost their lives from or are affected by its exposure decades ago.

“We’re trying to keep it in the forefront by doing events like this,” said Patrick Reilly, a Vietnam veteran and the group’s vice commander, This [group] was begun by a couple of guys who suffered from the effects.”

“We’ve got some wives who have lost their husbands who come and do this balloon release for us,” said Eric Mitchell, an association officer and Army veteran who served in the Gulf War. “It helps them work through everything they’ve gone through in their lives.”