By Jim Kinney | jkinney@repub.com
SPRINGFIELD — Friday’s Memorial Day observance on the steps of Springfield City Hall had Gumersindo Gomez thinking of the friends he served with in Vietnam.
They relaxed one night, with a beer each, and listened to the one record album they had — an LP by Puerto Rican bandleader Tito Rodríguez.
“That night, we were together,” said Gomez, a veterans’ advocate who served in 1966 and 1967 with 196th Light Infantry Brigade. “The next day, they were no more.”
There was an ambush while on patrol. Gomez said he heard the explosions.
“If you do take the opportunity today, tomorrow, Sunday or Monday, or whenever it is possible, to say, ‘Thank you for your service,’ ‘Thank you for my freedom because you gave of yourself for us,’” Gomez said. “If you’re by yourself and you get an opportunity, thank the Lord also, because he has made it possible.”
A few dozen people — veterans and public officials — gathered at noon Friday at City Hall for a speaking program and laying of wreaths at the monuments across Court Street in the square.
They were welcomed under a 20-foot-by-38-foot American flag flown by Springfield firefighters.
Department of Veterans’ Services Director Joseph DeCaro reminded the crowd that Memorial Day is not about all veterans — that’s Veterans Day — but rather those who lost their lives.
That includes the 153 women who have died in combat in Afghanistan, Iraq, Kuwait and Syria, said Health and Human Services Commissioner Helen Caulton-Harris.
The holiday is on the last Monday in May.
Local events continue through the weekend, including a 10 a.m. Monday morning Mass at St. Michael Cemetery, 1601 State St. in Springfield.
The Massachusetts Veterans Memorial Cemetery hosts its annual Memorial Day observance at 1 p.m. Monday at the cemetery, 1390 Main St., in Agawam.
U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal, D-Springfield, invoked Abraham Lincoln’s words to a divided nation, in his second inaugural address at the close of the Civil War.
“With malice toward none with charity for all” still applies in the current politics, Neal said.
“The country, to be frank, is divided on so many things. We could never be divided on Memorial Day. We could never be divided about Veterans Day,” he said.
