GREENEVILLE – Tusculum University began the Memorial Day weekend with a dignified and moving service Friday, May 24, that highlighted those who died serving the nation
Grady Barefield, center, explains the meaning of the folds during a flag-folding ceremony as Charles McLain, right, and Bill Adams hold the flag.
Community members joined Tusculum staff members for the event in the Thomas J. Garland Library on the university’s Greeneville campus. Dale Laney, Tusculum’s director of veterans services, emphasized the importance of Memorial Day and talked about the scope of people who have sacrificed their lives for the country’s benefit.
“To most, Memorial Day will unofficially signal the beginning of summer, but it is a more somber day, dedicated to honor those who did not return from war,” he said “The sacrifice of our fallen heroes should truly humble us. They were woven into the fabric of communities across the nation, and they were loved and are missed.”
Laney said Memorial Day became an official federal holiday in 1971. He noted more than 1.1 million men and women in the United States have died in wartime and 2.8 million others have been wounded or gone missing.
“Memorial Day gives us a chance to reconnect to the genesis of our nation’s numerous freedoms,” Laney said. “It is an important day in which we ground ourselves in the reality that every Gold Star family already knows – that our way of life has been shaped and made possible by those who have served and by those who are lost.”
Grady Barefield, center, explains the meaning of the folds during a flag-folding ceremony as Charles McLain, right, and Bill Adams complete the process.
Delivering the invocation, Dr. Ronda Gentry, Tusculum’s executive director of student persistence and engagement and assistant professor of religious studies, prayed for people to experience comfort.
“God, we lift up each person who has given his or her life,” she said. “We lift up their families and their communities who on this day are reminded of that sacrifice. For some, it is extremely fresh. For others, it has been decades or generations, but each life and community has been touched. So on this day, God, we ask for your presence to be felt, and we ask for your comfort to be surrounding each and every person affected by the loss of one of these service members.”
The brief ceremony also provided an additional educational component as members of American Legion Post 64 in Greeneville conducted a flag-folding ceremony and explained the meaning of all 13 folds made to the American flag. It was conducted by Charles McLain, the post’s honor guard commander; Bill Adams, the post’s funeral commander; and Grady Barefield, post commander and its primary chaplain. Robert Aston, one of the post’s directors, joined the group for the event.