The Bowling Green High School marching band crosses Main and Wooster streets during the Memorial Day parade.
Waving flags along the Memorial Day parade route in Bowling Green were Kolton Spangenberg, 12, front, and his brother Casey Wilson, 6.
Wreaths were presented for losses in wars. The final wreath was presented by the Bowling Green American Legion Auxiliary Post 45 in honor of all service members lost in service to the United States and the families who supported them.
Lt.-Col. (U.S. Army, retired) Andrea Adams delivered the keynote address for the Bowling Green Memorial Day ceremony at Oak Grove Cemetery.
The Memorial Day ceremony in Bowling Green closed with a volley of rifle fire, from the Civil War reenactors of the 14th Ohio unit of volunteer infantry from Toledo.
Children, families and veterans and many patriotic residents lined the streets for Monday’s Memorial Day parade, which was followed by a ceremony in Oak Grove Cemetery.
Lt.-Col. (U.S. Army, retired) Andrea Adams delivered the keynote address.
“We could be camping right now, or maybe putting meat on the grill or smoker, breaking the cornhole boards out, or teeing off at the golf course, because this is the start of summer, and after a Northwest Ohio winter we are more than ready to be enjoying the weather and doing the things we like to do,” Adams said. “That’s not to say that we shouldn’t do those things, but it’s also important to do this. To be here, to take a few moments, to reflect on those who died, so we can do the things we like to do, to remember those lives that were lost way too young.”
She listed off wars and professions of the many who lost their lives in service to the country, but also recognized that some who died were women.
“The majority of those (who died) were men, but women also paid the ultimate sacrifice, such as the eight Army Corps nurses killed in Vietnam and the 70 female service members killed in Iraq and Afghanistan,” Adams said.
A moving Call to Remember was issued by Herbert Dettmer, Bowling Green American Legion Post 45. Dettmer read the poem “May and the mother wept.”
“It was written as a tribute to the man I was named for. He was killed in World War II. He was going to be a minister, but first he answered the call,” Dettmer said.
Dettmer served in the Army Signal Corps from 1967-70.
The ceremony was closed with a volley of rifle fire from the Civil War reenactors from the 14th Ohio unit of volunteer infantry from Toledo and the mourning sounds of trumpets playing “Taps.”
The parade started on Main Street and passed the Wood County Courthouse, after a brief stop for the laying of a wreath.
Kolton Spangenberg, 12, and his brother Casey Wilson, 6, waved flags along the parade route
“I’m going to see the veterans. My grandpa was a veteran. When he served in the war, I wasn’t even born back then,” Casey said. “Grandpa was in Vietnam. He is still alive.”
The brothers have generations of family that are veterans, some who served in the Navy and Air Force, from WWII and the Vietnam War.
Grandmother Diane Huffman helped the boys explain how their grandfather rescued soldiers from the jungles in Vietnam while driving the jet boats along the rivers.
Retired local radio personality Dave Horger also came to watch the parade.
“It’s been very patriotic, which is the way it’s supposed to be,” Horger said. “This is small town. Well, I know BG isn’t a very small town, but this is small-town America, the way it’s supposed to be. So this is great. A beautiful day for it.”
