Feature

Iroquois Post 1587 Memorial Day Message 2022

By Ron Cook Jr. Iroquois Post 1587 Post Commander

Memorial Day is a time to remember and pay tribute to our fallen military service members who have joined the great spirit Army of Warriors in Skyworld. Many of our community members across both Territories will observe this solemn occasion by visiting cemetery sites and decorate Veterans’ graves with flags and flowers. In fact, Memorial Day started as Decoration Day where the tradition of adorning service member graves with flags and flowers originated at Waterloo, New York. (The town was officially declared the birthplace of Memorial Day in 1966.)

After the First World War, Decoration Day was renamed Memorial Day and became a time to honor the lives lost in all armed conflicts, not just the Civil War. In 1968, Congress passes a law declaring Memorial Day a federal holiday to be observed each year on the last Monday of May.

This year’s observance will begin with encouraging community members to return to this fading tradition of honoring our Warrior’s by visiting and decorating gravesites. Iroquois Post 1587 will begin to venture out for this annual activity to visit our cemeteries starting from the Post on Sunday May 22, 2022@10am – 3pm and we invite anyone interested to join us in this honorable activity. The Post will continue to visit and decorate graves on May 23rd, 24th, and 25th or until all graves are decorated starting each day at 10am.

A Sunrise Service is scheduled for Sunday May 29, 2022, starting at Good Shepard Church in Irving at 8:30am with additional salute honoring’s in Newtown Cemetery- Lawtons, Pinewoods Cemetery – Gowanda, Indian Hill Cemetery – Perrysburg. This will cover the four-directions as we will conduct a final Sunrise Service and salute at the SNI Cemetery at 11am.

The Seneca Nation along with Iroquois Post 1587 invites Veterans and family members to attend a Memorial Day ceremony on May 30, 2022@11am at the Seneca Allegany Administration Building (SAAB) as we pay tribute and honor Warriors who paid the ultimate sacrifice.

We ask the community to help us keep our Veteran Grave Registry current by letting us know if you need any assistance with obtaining a free Veteran grave marker, plaque, or headstone. We will need a copy of the service members discharge papers to process any application.

If a Veteran already has a headstone but not marked as a Veteran, we can help and process the same application with a copy of the service members discharge document(s) to add a Veteran plaque or marker. Please feel free to stop by the Iroquois Post 1587 or call if there are any questions you may have reference to your deceased Veteran service member that we may not have in our current grave registry documents and share their gravesite location.

You may contact the Post at 716-532-1587 and leave a detailed message with fallen Veteran’s full name/location/address or email information to americanlegioniroquoispost1587@gmail.com.

Your help is greatly appreciated, Nya:weh!