MOUNT CARMEL - Memorial Day activities and election of officers highlighted a meeting of the Mount Carmel Area Joint Veterans Committee April 21 at Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 2110.
During the week prior to the holiday, American flags will be placed on the lamp posts on Oak Street.
On Saturday, May 25, flags will be placed on the graves of veterans at cemeteries, beginning at St. Mary's Cemetery in Beaverdale. Those who wish to help with this project should meet at 10 a.m. at the VFW.
The Memorial Day Mass will be held at 9:15 a.m. Sunday at SS Peter and Paul Ukrainian Catholic Church, Avenue and Beech Street. Veterans and members of the VFW Ladies Auxiliary and Knights of Columbus Bishop Lawrence F. Schott Assembly 959 will meet at 9 a.m. at the church. The Very Rev. Archpriest Michael Hutsko will officiate.
At 1 p.m. Sunday, the Changing of the Colors flag ceremony will be held in honor and memory of George P. Parry, who attained the rank of second lieutenant, serving with both Companies E and C, 55th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. The ceremony is held at the flag pole at the Susquehanna Bank at Second and Oak streets. Area veterans and the public are invited.
On Memorial Day, the program will begin at 8:15 a.m. at the American Legion Post 91, Avenue and Maple Street. Wreaths will be placed at the memorials dedicated to Mount Carmel veterans who died in this country's 20th century wars. A volley of shots will be fired, and "Taps" will be sounded as the flag is lowered to half-staff. Those participating are to be present by 8 a.m.
Those assembled will then form on Maple Street. Any group or organization wishing to march in the parade should be there for 8:15 a.m. The parade will march south to Second Street and east on Second to Oak. There, the Mount Carmel Area High School Band, under the direction of Bernard Stellar, will join the parade and will play a selection of patriotic songs. Wreaths will be placed at the memorials, a volley of shots fired and the flag lowered to half-staff as "Taps" is played.
The parade will then march east on Second Street to Hickory, south to Third and then west on Oak Street to the World War I plaque on The UNB Bank. The band will again play a selection of patriotic songs, a volley of shots fired and "Taps" played.
Joined by area emergency vehicles, the parade will travel west on Third Street to St. Mary's Cemetery in Beaverdale. There the Knights of Columbus will have a service at the memorial to Bishop Lawrence F. Schott, who served as pastor of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church and auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Harrisburg until his death on March 11, 1963.
Those marching will then proceed to Mount Carmel Cemetery where the American Legion will hold its service at the grave of Harry Geist, who is one of the two veterans for whom the post is named. Geist was a corporal in Company B, 1st United States Engineers; he was killed in action July 20, 1918, in France during World War I.
James A. Garfield Camp No. 34, Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, will also hold a service in Mount Carmel Cemetery at the grave of Oscar H. Sillyman, a sergeant with both Company B, 6th Regiment, Pennsylvania Militia of 1862 and Company B, 27th Regiment, Pennsylvania Militia of 1863.
From there, those assembled will travel to St. Joseph Cemetery, Locust Gap, where the VFW and the Disabled American Veterans Chapter 129 will hold services. The parade will be escorted through the route by members of the Mount Carmel Borough and Mount Carmel Township police departments.
Following the morning's events, food and refreshments will be available to participants at 11 a.m. at the American Legion.
Area veterans and the public are invited to attend and participate in all services in Mount Carmel and at the cemeteries. The public is also encouraged to fly the American flag from their homes for the holiday and at all times.
Officers elected for the coming year were: Andrew Bubnis, president; James Kealy, vice president; William Begis, treasurer; David Berezovske, secretary; Walter Summers, chaplain, and Larry Latsko, Joseph Lutcavage and Robert Nahodil, trustees.
Organized in 1954, the committee is comprised of Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 2110 and its ladies auxiliary, American Legion Post 91, American Disabled Veterans Chapter 129, James A. Garfield Camp No. 34 of Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War and Knights of Columbus Bishop Lawrence F. Schott Assembly 959.