DeKalb American Legion Post 66 honors veterans with memorial services

DeKALB – Dan Gallagher and members of the DeKalb American Legion Post 66 spent Sunday morning praying over the graves of veterans and performing rifle volleys.

Gallagher, the post’s commander, and American Legion members Jerry Kempson, Phil Bomar, Tom Wicker, Rob McCann, Ken Anderson, Jerry Busby and Steve Marberry, made trips to 10 cemeteries to honor fallen U.S. military veterans for Memorial Day weekend.

The group began its services at 8 a.m. Sunday at Veteran’s Park in DeKalb.

“The reasoning behind the memorial services is the freedom that everyone has in America,” Gallagher said.

At cemeteries throughout the city, miniature American flags danced around the stone-carved names of veterans as the men shared words of gratitude.

Just one day earlier, a group of Boy Scouts volunteered to help the American Legion place more than 2,000 flags on gravesites throughout the area.

“They’ve been doing it for years – helping us – and without them we’d be doing it all day,” Gallagher said.

Whether surviving family and friends were present at Sunday’s ceremonies or the American Legion was speaking to an empty field, Gallagher and his crew honored each veteran.

“It was kind of sad because some of the places that we went to there were no family members there anymore,” he said.

Stops on the American Legion’s trip included Veteran’s Park, Fairview Park Cemetery, Malta Cemetery, St. Mary’s Cemetery, the Kishwaukee River bridge, Oakwood Cemetery, DeKalb County Cemetery, Ohio Grove Cemetery, Mound Rest Cemetery and Afton Cemetery.

“We say a little prayer, and then we do the rifle volleys. We do taps, and that concludes the memorial service,” Gallagher said. “We always start out talking to the people who are there about why they’re there and who they’re there in honor of.”

Ken Burton stopped by Fairview Park Cemetery in remembrance of his family Sunday.

“It’s become a tradition for my wife and I to take her mother to the Fairview service. For my wife and mother-in-law, it’s an emotional service, considering their father and husband, James Kayes Sr., a WWII veteran, is buried there,” Burton said. “For me, looking out over the cemetery and seeing all those veterans’ graves marked with American flags is a very moving experience. We are a fortunate people.”

At 8:30 a.m. today, the American Legion, VFW and AmVets will lay a wreath on the memorial clock at First Street and Lincoln Avenue in honor of the nation’s veterans.

“These veterans have given their lives, and this is when we all take a moment to reflect on them,” Gallagher said.