NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — As a way to remind people of Memorial Day's true meaning, military organizations across Hampton Roads held ceremonies to honor those who gave the ultimate sacrifice.
Ceremonies took place across Hampton Roads on this Memorial Day, with ceremonies in Virginia Beach and Suffolk, not to mention the annual Memorial Day Parade in Portsmouth.
The American Legion Braxton Perkins Post 25 recognized this holiday in Newport News at the Victory Arch.
"All rise for the posting of the colors," requested Mitchell L. Rubenstein, Junior Vice Commander with the VFW.
"I stand before you on this proud day of remembrance as we ask that you join me in not only remembering those who made the ultimate sacrifice for the good of this great nation but in truly reflecting on their legacy," he said.
In the eyes of our fallen soldiers, fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, and comrades were lives not lost in vain or anguish, for each life lost has contributed to the evolution of America as we know it today," he continued.
"Let us take their memory and cherish it," said William Chan, the Commander of VFW Post 25.
"Let us enshrine, as Lincoln urged, that 'we here highly resolved that the dead shall not have died in vain - that this nation shall be a new birth of freedom, and that this government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth,'" Chan said, taking a quote from Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.
"Thank you for being here today," Chan concluded.