Wreath-Laying Ceremony Honors Veterans of East Lansing Area
“When I was a young man, I didn’t really appreciate what Memorial Day meant,” Interim City Manager Randy Talifarro told those gathered on Wednesday, May 24, for a wreath-laying ceremony at the Hannah Community Center.
“It was [just] a holiday,” he said. “But I would really encourage those of you that are in attendance to remember the price that was paid, and the real purpose of Memorial Day is – an acknowledgement of those that gave their lives.”
Marines from the 1st Battalion came to lay the wreath at the community center veterans’ memorial. The granite memorial includes a testament to U.S. Marine Corps Reserve 2nd Lt. Sherrod E. Skinner Jr., an East Lansing war hero who was awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously for bravery exhibited during the Korean War.
The EL Singers, made up of students from East Lansing High School, sang a song honoring veterans.
The group of about 75 people gathered for the event included many veterans. Talifarro singled out in his remarks Dr. Richard Johnson, whom Talifarro recognized as one of the last living World War II veterans in the area.
“You know, in my day, everyone went [to war],” Johnson told ELi, “unless you had a problem.”
Johnson was warmly greeted at the event by former mayor Vic Loomis, himself a Vietnam War-era non-combat U.S. Army veteran who served from 1966 to 1969.
Loomis has been active in local veteran affairs, including having served as the secretary of the Michigan State University Veterans Association and the secretary of the Michigan Association of Collegiate Veterans. He also served as a mentor in the specialty veterans’ court run out of 54B District Court in East Lansing.
“I appreciate with each passing year these services,” Loomis told ELi, “ because unfortunately some that I served with can’t be here to celebrate.”