Oxford Memorial Day

Remembrance Walk and Ceremony

May 30th  10 am

Recently the Oxford Memorial Day committee met to plan the 2022 event. The committee is comprised of members of the American Legion, Oxford civic leaders, members of the Oxford Police Department, the Mayor of Oxford and a local Veteran and Purple Heart Award recipient.  After two years of virtual events, we are pleased to announce we are back to an in person event this year on Monday May 30th beginning at 10 am.

 

With guidance from the American Legion and input from our Purple Heart Award recipient, we are pivoting the event this year to include a Remembrance Walk and Ceremony.  One aspect that was discussed was the desire to educate the community about the difference between Memorial Day and Veterans Day.  Memorial Day is a day to honor the men and women who died while serving in the U.S. military.   This year, we will honor all fallen heroes with a silent Remembrance Walk to the Oxford Cemetery, where the American Legion will hold its annual Memorial Day Ceremony.

 

On May 30th, 2022 groups can meet at Oxford Memorial Park at 9:30 am at the Oxford Memorial before walking silently up Pine Street and entering the Oxford Cemetery from the back entrance.  This walk is interactive, allowing bystanders and guests to join us as we continue to the cemetery for the ceremony conducted by the American Legion.

So as Oxford honors and remembers, please take part and “Walk With Us”.

Any Veteran interested in participating by riding in a vehicle or a group interested in joining in our walk,  please reach out to Christine Grove, Oxford Area Chamber of Commerce at OxfordChamber@zoominternet.net

The community may also meet us directly at the cemetery.

 

We are creating a contact list of local Veterans.  This list will be used to share information on the Oxford Memorial Day event, Oxford Veterans Breakfast and the like.  Please click to complete the form.
The Difference between Memorial Day and Veterans Day - an article from the USO
2021 Oxford Memorial Day Ceremony Video
2020 Virtual Memorial Day Ceremony Video

What Memorial Day Means to Me?

We asked community members what Memorial Day means to them.

Sacrifice.

It is with honor and privilege to have served this great nation. My service to this country nearly cost me my life. Instead, I merely sacrificed a leg. And none of it matters on this day because I did not pay the ultimate sacrifice. I got to come home when thousands of my fellow warriors and comrades before me did not. Today is their day. Today we remember the servicemembers who paid the ultimate sacrifice in the defense of the red, white, and blue.

This is the day we pay homage to all those who didn’t come home. This is not Veterans Day, it’s not a celebration, it is a day of solemn contemplation over the cost of freedom.

To me Memorial Day means honoring those who have served before me and those members of the military that have made the ultimate sacrifice. It means reflecting on the freedoms that we enjoy in this country that those sacrifices have preserved. Personally, it means remembering the family members that served before me, my Grandfather in WWII, a great uncle in the Spanish American war and WWI, and my father during Korea. In the Oxford Cemetery we have two Medal of Honor recipients, a Union Army soldier that was killed in action at the Battle of Fredericksburg, and a soldier named Roy Walton Gibson who was killed in action in France during WWI who the American Legion Post is named, just to highlight a few of those that are the reason for Memorial Day.
Memorial Day for me is a time to remember and honor the men and women of our armed forces who fought and died in defense of the freedoms we enjoy and to respect and appreciate their call to duty, honor and country.  We must never forget their sacrifice or take for granted their legacy.
Memorial Day means to me the never-ending thankfulness we as American’s hold for the men and women who served before us and lost their lives fighting for our great nation. It is a day meant to venerate the souls lost and the families affected by these tragic events. It’s not a time to be sad, or a time to wish things were different, but a time to praise GOD for his mercy and understand everything that happens is all in HIS plan. Us, as Oxfordians, should take today to pray for the families and friends of those lost
Gratitude-

For my most influential High School teachers emphatically rehearsing, and helping me to understand the importance of General John Logan’s Order #11… then delivering it respectfully.

Pride-

In polishing my spats and trumpet, honored to play TAPS after the ceremonies benediction, yet to this day, flinching at the sound of the Honor Guard firing those .30 caliber rifles…knowing it was coming, because you have watched your entire life.

Loss-

Memories of so many Veteran friends our Oxford community has lost throughout the years, our true Hometown Heroes.  May we diligently continue to honor them, remind our younger generations, and never forget what they did for us!

 

In 1991 as a senior at OAHS,  Scott read Logan’s Order #11 at the Oxford Memorial Day event.  

I’m incredibly grateful for the men and women who served and gave their lives so we may live in freedom. Their bravery is unimaginable. I think too of their grieving families and loved ones who have been left behind. For me, Memorial Day is a solemn time of remembrance.

It is an opportunity to reflect on the sacrifices of our finest citizens, to mourn their passing and to lift up their loved ones in loss.
Memorial Day – setting aside one day that our heroes couldn’t have. Today means the memory of heroic sacrifice. Every Memorial Day since I was old enough, I go to the cemetery and crack open a beer with my grandfather who served in Korea. I always leave one on the headstone.
Our tradition every Memorial Day is to go to the cemetery to visit and plant flowers on my in-laws grave.  My mother –in-law and father-in-law were both in the Navy.  My brother-in-law Tom, was in the Army.  While serving his country, he was killed in Vietnam.
Memorial Day is a day we as a family, remember the sacrifices our service men, women and their families made for everyone to have freedom.  We have this freedom because of those who paid the ultimate price and are no longer with us.

Lance Corporal Jeffrey A. Sanders, United States Marine Corps, Purple Heart Recipient