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Memorial Day Ceremony - 2024
Memorial Day Ceremony - 2024
- Start time: 10am
- Monday May 27, 2024 (Memorial Day)
- Sterling Veterans Memorial (the corner of W Holly Ave and S Sterling Blvd)
Sponsored by the Breckenridge – Peters – Wood American Legion Post 150, Sterling, VA
Memorial Day Ceremony
10am start time
Monday May 27
THE YOUNG DEAD SOLDIERS DO NOT SPEAK
THE YOUNG DEAD SOLDIERS DO NOT SPEAK
by Archibald MacLeish
Nevertheless they are heard in the still houses: who has not heard them?
They have a silence that speaks for them at night and when the clock counts.
They say, We were young. We have died. Remember us.
They say, We have done what we could but until it is finished it is not done.
They say, We have given our lives but until it is finished no one can know what our lives gave.
They say, Our deaths are not ours: they are yours: they will mean what you make them.
They say, Whether our lives and our deaths were for peace and a new hope or for nothing we cannot say: it is you who must say this.
They say, We leave you our deaths: give them their meaning: give them an end to the war and a true peace: give them a victory that ends the war and a peace afterwards: give them their meaning.
We were young, they say. We have died. Remember us.
Memorial Day 2023
Leanne R (Potomac Falls Marching Panthers) sounding 'Taps'
Thanks again to our keynote speaker, Fr. Mark E. Moretti (Christ the Redeemer Catholic Church).
Thanks also to the Reverend Steve Hall, to the Aldersgate Choir, to Scouts BSA Troop 956, and to the Greater Loudoun County American Legion Honor Guard for helping with our Memorial Day ceremony.
In Flanders Fields
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
John McCrae
America the Beautiful
Lyrics by Katharine Lee Bates, music by Samuel A. Ward
O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!
O beautiful for pilgrim feet,
Whose stern, impassioned stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America!
God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law!
O beautiful for heroes proved
In liberating strife,
Who more than self their country loved
And mercy more than life!
America! America!
May God thy gold refine,
Till all success be nobleness,
And every gain divine!
O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears!
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!
Memorial Day 2022
Leanne R and Brandon B (Potomac Falls Marching Panthers) sounding 'Echo Taps'
Thanks again to our keynote speaker, Anthony Barnes (Military and Veterans Affairs Manager, 10th District of Virginia, U.S. House of Representatives).
Thanks also to the Reverend Steve Hall, to the Aldersgate Choir, to Scouts BSA Troop 955 and Troop 956, and to the Greater Loudoun County American Legion Honor Guard for helping with our Memorial Day ceremony.
Memorial Day 2021
Leanne R (Potomac Falls Marching Panthers) sounds Taps
Thanks again to our keynote speaker, the Honorable Jennifer Wexton.
Thanks also to the Reverend Steve Hall, to the Aldersgate Choir, to Scouts BSA Troop 955 and Troop 956, and to the Greater Loudoun County American Legion Honor Guard for helping with our Memorial Day ceremony today.