SCRANTON, Pa. — The rain held off but the sky darkened over Scranton's Cathedral Cemetery, seeming almost mournful.
The gloom did not deter the more than two dozen people at this Lackawanna County cemetery who gathered Monday to listen to Koch-Conley American Legion Post 121's annual Memorial Day program.
Impending rain cut the program short, but they got in enough time to stress the day's importance.
"This day is set aside to honor those who made the supreme sacrifice for our country,” said. Col. Joe Albert, the post’s commandant. “As you heard, over a million men and women died on behalf of freedom and justice and for America. And as a result, we have the country we have today.”
The crowd heard patriotic music, such as the the soaring "God Bless America" and the somber "Taps." The wind caught thousands of small American flags that decorated the graves of dead veterans.
U.S. District Court Judge Julia Munley took the podium as the day's keynote speaker. Her father served in the Army during the Cold War and her grandfather was a doughboy in World War I.
“Ladies and gentlemen today is such a significant federal holiday in the United States when we honor and mourn all those valiant and selfless men and women who heard the call to duty and responded,” Munley said.
Albert closed by repeating to the crowd something a friend of his told him — that the second we forget about these people who gave it all, they are gone. And so is a part of us.