(majestic music) - [Man] Their faces come before me, yes, not only on Memorial Day, but many times during the year I think of 'em.

- [Woman] It's a part of healing for families, I think.

- [Woman] I know it's easy to say many of the cliches, freedom isn't free.

It's not though.

- [Man] Memorial Day to me is respecting the fellows that didn't make it back home.

I thank them for giving up their life, so we could still call this America.

♪ Oh say can you see ♪ ♪ By the dawn's early light ♪ ♪ What so proudly we hailed ♪ ♪ At the twilight's last gleaming ♪ ♪ Whose broad stripes and bright stars ♪ ♪ Through the perilous fight ♪ ♪ O'er the ramparts we watched ♪ ♪ Were so gallantly streaming ♪ ♪ And the rockets red glare ♪ ♪ The bombs bursting in air ♪ ♪ Gave proof through the night ♪ ♪ That our flag was still there ♪ ♪ Oh say does that star spangled banner yet wave ♪ ♪ O'er the land of the free ♪ ♪ And the home of the brave ♪ - Seems odd thing to say, but you wouldn't believe what one of my favorite songs are, Star Spangled Banner.

Yeah.

That's a song that I really, really gotta stand up and salute.

(airplanes whooshing) - Hello, Minnesota veterans, families, friends, and neighbors.

Thank you for joining us to recognize Memorial Day this year in this virtual program.

Memorial Day is a day to remember those that we've lost, both those who lost their lives defending our country, and civilian family, friends, and loved ones who have passed on.

This year, Memorial Day marks a somber milestone in our more than year long battle with the Coronavirus.

Globally almost 3 million people have lost their lives.

The United States has seen over 564,000 deaths.

And in Minnesota, more than 7,000 people have passed from the pandemic.

While this Memorial Day marks a milestone of hope with more and more Minnesotans becoming vaccinated, we grieve the thousands who are no longer with us because of COVID.

And we grieve those loved ones who have lost, both recently and even decades ago.

In the veteran community we especially remember our fellow comrades, those who have served proudly alongside, and those who are not as fortunate as we are, who made the ultimate sacrifice in defense of our nation.

Despite the challenges we currently face we continue the tradition of honoring those heroes.

It is from the service of generations of these fallen heroes that allows us to enjoy the freedoms that we have today.

The Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs has traditionally recognized Memorial Day events with events at our three state veterans cemeteries, and at our five state veterans homes.

Like last year, we are marking the special day in a different way in 2021.

But with the same goal, to honor and pay our respects to those Minnesota veterans who have passed.

We are committed to offering all Minnesota veterans a final resting place in a veterans cemetery close to their home.

So we are very pleased that the federal VA's National Cemetery Administration has offered a grant to build a fourth state veteran's cemetery in Redwood Falls, in Southwestern Minnesota.

It is our intent to break ground on this new cemetery later this year.

It would join our other three state veteran cemeteries in Duluth, Little Falls, and Preston.

And of course the federal Fort Snelling national cemetery located in the Twin Cities.

We are honored that veterans and their families choose burial in our state veteran cemeteries, entrusting the MDVA with the perpetual care of their loved ones.

Many of our cemetery staff are veterans themselves and find their work incredibly rewarding.

The Little Falls state cemetery opened in 1994 and has served more than 8,500 veterans and spouses during the last 27 years.

The Preston cemetery has served more than 700 veterans and spouses since it opened in 2015.

And our newest state cemetery in Duluth opened in 2018, has interred almost 400 veterans and spouses.

But these are not just numbers, these are veterans and spouses of veterans.

Those who have served on the front lines or the home front Those who have made sacrifices and may have incurred lifelong scars that remind them of the cost of war.

In June of 2020, at the Little Falls state veterans cemetery we had the honor of laying to rest a veteran and loyal employee of the cemetery, Dennis Knowles.

Dennis had been a groundskeeper at the Little Falls cemetery for more than five years.

And was known for his positive attitude, his unrivaled work ethic, and dedication to serving veterans and their families.

He meticulously maintained the cemetery grounds and took immense pride in his work, evident by the fact that he continued working at the cemetery until his passing.

At the conclusion of his committal service Dennis was rendered full military honors, three rifle volleys, and the playing of Taps echoed throughout the cemetery.

A tradition that Dennis had viewed hundreds of times during his tenure.

On this Memorial Day it is right that we honor those men and women who bravely served their country.

Without their service we would not be the land of the free.

(jaunty music) (upbeat music) - I look at my photos of Vietnam about three or four times a year.

And they're not bad thoughts, or distressing thoughts, they're just thoughts of experience.

This is the first day of me as an aircraft commander.

That's who I was.

I'm a leader of three other men.

I'd always wanted to be a pilot.

Always.

This is Tom, he's my best buddy from basic training on.

This is Tom, and this is Steve, and this is me.

Tom died in October, Steve died in March of our year in Vietnam.

These men were good pilots.

Why were they killed and I survived?

It does give you pause to think about how lucky you are, or give you pause to think about why are you here and other people aren't.

I have a rubbing of Tom and Steve's name from the Vietnam Wall.

I think about them almost every day, 'cause I think that we would be just the bestest of friends.

A bunch of old men, big bellies, drinking beer, telling war stories.

(gentle music) - People when you see 'em on the street they say, my loved one is buried at the veteran's cemetery.

Families are proud, proud to be here.

- It's not just during your life that you're gonna be respected and appreciated for your military service.

We want people to know that forever we'll be grateful for what you've done.

And that even after your passing, you're still gonna be to be taken care of.

Hopefully that comes through to families that we're not just doing a job out here, we're trying to take care of them.

And we do care about their specific family, their individual that passed away.

We have three state veteran's cemeteries, Little Falls here, Preston, Duluth.

Our staff are in constant communication.

One example of that, Cory Johnson in Duluth had contacted me, and he had seen DSM on a veteran's documentation, which is a distinguished service medal.

- Especially when we're dealing with a veteran that has already passed, we make sure to pay special attention to any awards or decorations that that veteran may have received while they were in the service.

And while looking at staff Sergeant Thomas's discharge paperwork that made us look a little bit closer at anything else that might've been included in there.

- He had me kind of looking into it as well.

And we found that, I don't know if it was upgraded or what had happened, but it was actually a distinguished service cross.

- The distinguished service cross is our nation's second highest award and is awarded for valor in combat.

- We learned that he earned this from saving his commanding officer.

He got his men out, and then he went back into combat to get his commanding officer.

Kind of the stuff of movies.

- So we were able to work with the family to be able to put that on the headstone because obviously that's an extremely high valor award.

And that's the kind of things we like to assist families with to make sure that our veterans are respected the way they should be.

- When we found out about all this, it was tremendous.

He was really good at surprises.

And this was definitely a surprise.

- If you truly appreciate what that award is given for you'd know that it's, you don't ever see it.

And I may never see it again.

(dynamic music) - I know for a lot of Americans Memorial Day is kind of the kickoff to summer, but I have a lot of family, military people in my family, and Memorial Day has always been recognized as the day that we honor those fallen soldiers.

- Memorial Day I think very deeply of the people that was in the service that got really in bad, got it very rough, very tough.

- I remember all the men and women who have put on the uniform and sacrificed their lives to serve this nation.

- The ones that have passed away in the cemeteries and the ones that are even at war outside the United States, we think of every one of them.

- The sign says it well, some gave some, and others gave all.

- Just knowing that how different it is to give up a little bit of your freedom and knowing that these men and women literally gave up all of their freedoms for the rest of their life in order for us to keep the freedoms that we currently have.

- That's why we're free, because we got all these guys that some made it and some didn't, but they, because of that we're here.

- Now during my deployments, I actually had 21 folks that did not come back with us.

So I appreciate the time that people take to honor our veterans on Memorial Day.

- For those who've died in combat this is the last thing they've experienced.

And it's a horrible thing.

And my thoughts go to them and their families.

- Although Memorial Day is just one day of the year, I believe in remembering the veterans every day of the year.

- Memorial Day is to me is the binding of our nation.

And if we ever lose the fact that we don't memorialize our war dead it's the day that our nation is done.

- Hello everyone, Governor Tim Walz here.

Memorial Day is a time to pause, reflect, and remember those who've made the ultimate sacrifice in service to our nation.

Today, we honor the courage, the spirit, and the tenacity of those who have served on our behalf to defend our freedoms, and to protect our democracy.

As our state and country move forward in our constant battle for freedom and justice for all, we must not forget those who fought this battle before us.

We are forever grateful to those who came before us and willingly put their lives on the line to defend the freedoms that we all enjoy today.

Minnesota has a long tradition of serving and defending our country, from the Civil War to the battles we're fighting today.

In these conflicts, thousands of Minnesotans have lost their lives in more than 150 years of combat all over the world.

And while we're not able to recognize them in a traditional Memorial Day programs this year, our gratitude and debt is great.

Thank you to all have sacrificed from decades gone by, to just months ago, for fighting for our freedoms.

(somber music) ♪ Oh beautiful for spacious skies ♪ ♪ For amber waves of grain ♪ ♪ For purple mountain majesty ♪ ♪ Above the fruited plain ♪ ♪ America, America ♪ ♪ God shed his grace on thee ♪ ♪ And crown thy good with brotherhood ♪ ♪ From sea to shining sea ♪ - On Memorial Day, I always think of my uncle.

- Thinking of my father, who was a World War II Navy veteran.

- My dad, my dad served in World War II.

- I remember all the families here in Northern Minnesota that lost loved ones.

- And my first Memorial Day ever was in 2007, when I came to the United States.

And I never heard about Memorial Day.

And I was going to summer school in middle school.

And then we went to Greenwood Cemetery in Superior, Wisconsin.

And that's when I learned about Memorial Day and put flags at the veterans' grave sites.

And then from then I carried that tradition of putting flags every Memorial Day.

- I like to bring people together and gather, but when it comes to Memorial Day, I prefer to be more quiet.

- Many times I would bring my family down to West Duluth and go to the parade.

To me it meant a lot for them to see that parade.

And now we're the first unit in it.

And that makes me quite proud.

- When I think about Memorial Day I think back to my childhood, as my parents would take us to Fort Snelling national cemetery to visit our grandpa.

So for me, this has always been a day of remembrance.

Never did I think though, that on this day I would be thinking about my own son.

- We went out to Fort Snelling, we visited my dad for Memorial Day.

And then we went through the main street.

Joe knew some of the names and he was recalling some of the stories.

And he only hoped that he could serve as bravely as some of the men that had gone before him.

So that was a very poignant moment for me as a mom.

Here he is in training, knowing he's gonna be deployed, hoping he doesn't land here.

And sure enough, then 11 months later he did.

- My name is Sandy and I'm a gold star mom.

My son Conor Masterson.

Conor was a medic in the US Army serving in Afghanistan.

- I'm Valerie Kennedy.

I'm a gold star mother of Joseph Alan Kennedy, Army specialist who was killed in action in Afghanistan, April 15, 2011.

- Conor was always my practical joker.

He was the life of the party and really brought a lot of joy into our household.

He also did his fair share of troublemaking and is absolutely responsible for a lot of my gray hairs, but.

- Joe, he was really a great kid.

Just that all American kid that loved to be active.

He was very creative.

He just knew how to have fun.

He lived life fast, full, and loud.

- Conor, when he turned 18, decided that his path forward was to join the military.

At his very core Conor cared so much about other people and was always reaching out to help.

So being a combat medic, I think that gave him a great platform to do what came natural to him.

- Joe enlisted in the service at age 23.

And Joe really felt very strongly that he had to go out there and do something, and make a difference.

- This is Conor and his wife Lorraina.

He'd only been married for nine months at the time that he died.

It was Easter morning on April 8th, of 2007.

They weren't far from base when an IED exploded almost right underneath where he was sitting in the Humvee.

So of the five men that were in the vehicle, two were, as far as I know, able to walk away from the incident.

Two were injured and Conor lost his life.

- They deployed in January and then he was killed in April.

He was 25 at the time of his death.

So almost two years to the day from the day he joined.

- Everybody experiences grief differently.

But for me, that meant immersing in it for a while.

It meant doing things for other people so that I could make something positive come out of it.

His life cannot be for nothing.

And it matters that he lived, just like all of our fallen.

It matters that they live.

- We just wanna live a life worthy of his sacrifice.

I remember one Memorial Day out at Fort Snelling and there was a very large flag.

It was it beautiful breezy day for a great big flag.

And it was just flowing.

And it was so majestic, and it meant much more that year.

And I still get, I still get caught by the sight of a flag that's blowing in the wind because there's so much that holds that flag up.

- Standby.

Ready.

Ready, aim, fire.

(guns booming) Ready, aim, fire.

Ready, aim, fire.

Ready.

Present arms.

(trumpet playing) Order arms.

(gentle music) - [Announcer] Reflections Memorial Day 2021 is a TPT Partnership's co-production of Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs and Twin Cities PBS.

(chiming music)