Memorial Day Ceremony at Little Flanders Field

Military members, both past and current, along with dozens of families gathered around the graves at Little Flanders Field in Alpena on Monday to honor all of the fallen soldiers that served the United States.

Speakers talked about the sacrifices they made for this country and why they deserve recognition from everyone. “I think on a beautiful day like today when you see this many people from the city of Alpena, the county of Alpena, to come when they could have been on a boat enjoying this and instead coming to honor our fallen,” said Matthew Carlisle, a retired U.S. marine. “I think is really a proper way to celebrate a day like Memorial Day.”

Memorial Day should be a time when all Americans come together and leave the politics out of it. “These are those days when we should really sit back and think about not getting so wound up on public side one way or another on a political thing,” Carlisle said. “We should remember the freedoms we have were not free and somebody did pay them.”

According to Carlisle, there’s some confusion about what this day means. “this is not a day for all veterans,” he said. “This is a day for all of us, veterans and non–veterans to commemorate and remember those that came before us. The speaker was terrific and if you heard what he said, freedom of speech doesn’t come from a writer. It comes from a soldier.”