DUPONT, Pa. — The Memorial Day Parade that made its way around the small borough of Dupont had everything you'd expect to see to honor our fallen servicemen and women.
But it was at the end of the parade route, at the borough building, where an impactful tribute was about to be made.
"It's once in a lifetime," said AM Vets Post 189 commander Bernie McDonald. "I mean, these opportunities don't come along very often, but it's my way of giving back and showing my appreciation, as well as the other veterans, to these veterans that are going to be on this monument today."
Before the monument was unveiled, the original casket flag of the first fallen soldier of Dupont, Private Joseph Motiska, was displayed and refolded during the ceremony,
"It's a 48-star flag that's 102, 103 years old," explained McDonald.
And dedicated to his great-nephew.
"The first casualty from the borough of Dupont. He died on his mother's 56th birthday, September 29 of 1918. In the Meuse-Argonne area of France during the First World War," explained great-nephew William Lukasik of Dupont.
56 fellow service members from Dupont have followed William Lukasik's great-uncle in giving the ultimate sacrifice.
Now a monument stands outside the borough building with each of their names.
"Remarkable if you even go to any major city, and you took the same area of that DuPont would be, and I don't think that there's a population amount that would have equaled the sacrifices that the men from Dupont had made," said Lukasik.
"That's the sacrifices veterans we all know we're gonna make. And we're proud of these veterans that are going to be memorialized here today," added McDonald.