Ceremony honors vets

The community of Whitepine commemorated Memorial Day on Monday evening with a special ceremony at the Whitepine Cemetery. Pastor Jon Wallace of the Whitepine United Methodist Church presided over the ceremony that included patriotic music and a roll call of the veterans buried in the cemetery.

Mindy Ferrell provided accompaniment as the 30 guests sang The Star-Spangled Banner, God Bless America, America the Beautiful and My Country Tis of Thee. Pat Austin with the cemetery district said that the tradition of the Memorial Day ceremony started in 1980, and the only year they missed was 2020 due to the pandemic. Wallace thanked the volunteers for placing flags at each gravesite of the 192 veterans buried in the cemetery.

Debb McNary of Trout Creek shard something she had found on the Internet about coins left on headstones. "Leave the coins on the headstones. They have special meanings," she said. A penny means someone visited the headstone, a nickel means someone attended boot camp with the deceased veteran, a dime means someone served with that person, and a quarter is significant because it means that person was with the veteran when they died.

Pastor Wallace shared stories of two veterans he met, one while he was ringing the bell at a Salvation Army kettle. The man told Wallace he was at Pearl Harbor, and Wallace got the chance to thank him for his service. The second was a man named Curly who was in a wheelchair. Wallace met him at the Imperial War Museum in London. Curly told Wallace about his service, and the day he was wounded and survived. "Today we honor those thousands of others who gave the ultimate sacrifice," Wallace said, "especially those laid to rest here."

Don Manning read the names of the 192 veterans buried in the cemetery. After the names were read, the ceremony concluded with a moment of silence and Taps was played by Roland Goertzen.