The Evans chapter of the Veterans of Foreign Wars paid homage to fallen veterans, Monday morning, in its fourth annual Memorial Day Breakfast.
VFW Post 12190 had scheduled its yearly Remembrance Ceremony at the Memorial Gardens Park, behind the Evans Library, as it does every year. While several families did come to pay respects at the memorial, inclement weather prompted the chapter to move the ceremony to the 1st Lt. Sharon Lane Post on Triangle Industrial Drive in Evans.
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There, over a hundred attendees came to honor loved ones who served, are still serving and who died serving. After Frances Floresca Baldwin, Miss Fort Eisenhower, sang the Star-Spangled Banner, VFW commanders and other attending vets made remembrance with a multi-service laying of wreaths.
Cynthia Stein, a member of the post, who served in Iraq twice during her tenure in the Army, presided over the proceedings. Her presentation to guests emphasized the importance of recording the experience of those in their lives who have served.
“I think so many people forget to follow up with their loved ones and find that out,” said Stein, who started in the Army in 1989 as an Air Defense Artillery officer. “That’s what I think this is really about — how do we and mobilize people if we don’t capture those stories.”
Her father, Allan Howard Stein, who passed away in 2011, was in the 82nd Airborne Division in World War II. Cynthia Stein recalls hearing his own rich history, and a time when he said he wished he kept his old uniform — a sentiment she came to appreciate after her own years of service.
Part of what led her to join the VFW was to have a platform to gather such histories, and encourage others, particularly youth, to remember them.
“I will do everything in my power to share stories, and the purpose of our military,” she said.
Skyler Q. Andrews is a staff reporter for The Augusta Press. Reach him at skyler@theaugustapress.com.
