FORT SNELLING, Minn. — Minnesota’s official Memorial Day observance was as soon as once more an actual gathering Monday for the primary time since earlier than the COVID pandemic started.

After two years of digital celebrations individuals trying to honor those that gave their lives for his or her nation converged upon Fort Snelling Nationwide Cemetery, the place the occasion was historically held for many years.

Volunteers plant almost 200,000 flags at Fort Snelling Nationwide Cemetery

The service got here full with colour guards, a 21-gun salute, the taking part in of faucets, speeches by politicians and viewers made up of veterans, relations and survivors — the entire components we have come to count on on a day put aside to recollect those that gave the final word sacrifice.

Rain showers and lightning initially put a damper on the occasion, however ultimately individuals had been in a position to put away their umbrellas.

“The individuals who lie right here actually stood within the face of tyranny and probably the lack of our complete freedoms,” Gov. Tim Walz, a Nationwide Guard veteran, instructed the gang. “They usually stood it down, generally in opposition to odds that might not have been calculated.”

Sen. Amy Klobuchar mentioned that is the primary Memorial Day Service she’s attended since her father, Korean Conflict veteran Jim Klobuchar, was buried at Fort Snelling.

She reminded the viewers that the individuals of Ukraine are at the moment combating for a similar concepts held by these buried on the cemetery.

“We as People stand with democracy and we stand with Ukraine!” Sen. Klobuchar declared, drawing applause from the viewers.

The theme this 12 months was “POW-MIA” — prisoners of battle and lacking in motion. An particular Dept. of Protection company estimates there are greater than 80,000 American service members nonetheless lacking and unaccounted for in the entire abroad conflicts the US has been engaged in throughout the previous century.

The featured speaker Monday was Mark Stephensen of the Nationwide League of POW-MIA Households.  

“Phrases are extra feeble on this Memorial Day on the sight of a robust and good nation that stands in silence and remembers those that had been beloved and in flip beloved their countrymen sufficient to die for them,” Stephensen asserted.

“But we should attempt to honor them, not for his or her sakes however for our personal. And if phrases can not repay the debt we owe these males, absolutely with our actions we will attempt to maintain religion with them.”

He mentioned his personal father, US Air Power Col. Mark Lane Stephensen, was lacking for many years after crashing his F4 Phantom whereas on a reconnaissance mission in North Vietnam in 1967. It wasn’t till 1988 that the Vietnamese recognized Stephensen’s stays.

Watch the most recent native information from the Twin Cities in our YouTube playlist: