Memorial Day ceremony returns to Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery in Elwood

For the first time since 2019, the Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery in Elwood held its Memorial Day ceremony to honor those in the armed service who made the ultimate sacrifice.

The weather was hot and sunny but also mercifully windy for the thousands of visitors who arrived throughout Monday at the national cemetery for veterans in Elwood 11 miles south of Joliet.

In front of an audience of hundreds, Nick Thomas, master of ceremonies, said staff at the cemetery had missed “each and every one you during these past two years.”

“But we know you were here in spirit, honoring those who gave their lives for the service of our country,” Thomas said.

The COVID-19 pandemic prevented the cemetery from holding an in-person Memorial Day ceremony.

The event came back in force for the cemetery’s 23rd year with music from the Joliet American Legion Band, speeches from actors playing President Abraham Lincoln and his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, men and women wearing military uniforms from past wars in the United States., and pilot Tom Buck flying a World War II-era airplane twice above the audience.

“We are back and I am delighted to be here,” said Quincy McCall, director of the Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery.

McCall said everyone gathers at the cemetery for Memorial Day to remember “great and brave Americans.”

“We know nothing of their individual thoughts and feelings as they met their fate but we know they died for a cause greater than self,” McCall said.

The cemetery was dedicated on Oct. 3, 1999 as the 117th national cemetery for American veterans. It serves thousands of veterans and their families in Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin.

Diane Hickey, who lives in Florida, was with her family at the gravesite of her late husband Timothy Hickey, a U.S. Army veteran who fought in the Vietnam War. He died in 2014 at 66, just five days shy of his 67th birthday.

“I think it’s great. I think the way they do this service out here is fantastic,” Diane Hickey said of the Memorial Day ceremony.

Diane Hickey said her husband was a “very proud man” who was “proud to have served his country.” She said Timothy did not talk about the Vietnam War until his grandson started asking him questions about it for school.

Marcus Mayes, of Chicago Heights, was with his mother to remember his late father, Willie Ester Mayes, a U.S. Army veteran who fought in the Vietnam War. He died in 2012 at 63.

Mayes said he believes veterans don’t get enough respect.

“We should think about them more often, not just on one day of the year,” he said.

That perspective was reflected in a speech at the ceremony from Terry Prince, director of the Illinois Department of Veterans’ Affair.

Prince told the audience that ceremonies were important but people’s gratitude had to be more than “visits to the troops in once-a-year Memorial Day ceremonies.”

“We honor the dead best by treating the living well. You’re here because you know that,” Prince said.

Prince said his department providee dozens of veteran-centered services, such as running five veterans homes in Illinois, including a 200-bed facility in Chicago.

Prince said Memorial Day was not only for honoring veterans who died in war but also from the “invisible wounds of war.”

“Those whose injuries may not have presented themselves in a battle station or a hospital ship but injuries so powerful it impacted them later, some times years after,” Prince said.