Memorial Day: 'They're never forgotten. Never.'
War dead remembered at Fort Sill cemetery

LAWTON Evelyn Ridley had plenty of reasons to attend Memorial Day services at Fort Sill National Cemetery almost three dozen.

"I came for my family, said Ridley, 55, of Apache. "My brothers, my brothers-in-law, my nieces and nephews. Right now, we have 32 members of my immediate family in the military.

Ridley isn't one of them. The youngest of 12 children, she wasn't able to enlist, although four of her brothers did. No one from her family is buried at the Fort Sill cemetery, but she felt she needed to be there to honor their service and the memory of all of America's fallen.

"That's why I'm here, is just to let them know they're never forgotten, Ridley said. "Never.

Ridley, draped in a raincoat and clutching an umbrella, was one of about 300 people who braved light mist and cloudy skies to gather on the east side of the cemetery for Monday's ceremonies.

Maj. Gen. David P. Valcourt, commanding general of the U.S. Army Field Artillery Center in Fort Sill, delivered the keynote address. He was joined at the site by a handful of state senators and representatives, as well as other military personnel and Dr. Gilbert "Gib Gibson, the state's civilian aide to the U.S. secretary of the Army.

Valcourt called Monday's observances "tremendously significant and praised military veterans and those who gave their lives.

"Our freedoms have endured only because the price was paid by those brave men and women, Valcourt said.

Gibson, of Lawton, said the country loses about 1,000 veterans each day.

"This cemetery, and I haven't heard lately, was burying about two to three a day here, Gibson said. "It has been very needed for this part of the state, and this part of the state has a lot of retired soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines in it, so this is a great place for them to find their final resting place, where they'll be close to their families.

Proximity matters. Just ask Beatrice Hall, 68, of Choctaw.

Her son, Jerry Lee Arellano, a retired Army sergeant, died last September. He was 48.

"It's still hard, Hall said, "and seeing everybody else who's still going through it all is hard. Every time I come to visit, it always makes me feel closer, you know. It helps a little bit for a while, anyway.

Memorial Day also makes older wounds ache.

Marion Little, 65, of Lawton came from a long line of soldiers. He served in Vietnam. His father fought in World War II. His oldest brother joined the service toward the end of the Korean War, and his son-in-law fought in the first Gulf War.

But those memories aren't the ones that brought him close to tears.

"I had a nephew that was killed in Vietnam just prior to me going over there, Little said, chin trembling. "He was on his third tour, two weeks before he was scheduled to come home.

Al Totte, 69, of Lawton said he attends the Memorial Day ceremony every year. He enlisted in the army when he was 17 and retired as a master sergeant in 1974.

"It brings back a lot of the camaraderie we had within the military, what the military actually stands for, Totte said. "I think a lot of the younger people, especially today, just don't look at it like we do. A lot of these people sacrificed 20 or 30 years of their lives to let us go on living the way we want to.

"That's what this means to me.

Archive ID: 2451031