Your guide to Memorial Day events along the Maine coast (May 23, 2008)
By Molly Lovell
Staff Writer
People in cities and towns throughout Maine will be wearing red, white and blues this Memorial Day, May 26, while honoring the country’s fallen soldiers. Up and down the coast, groups have organized observance ceremonies, parades and other community events.
Scarborough will observe the holiday beginning at 7:45 a.m. A bus will leave the Libby-Mitchell Post 76, American Legion on Libby Road for services at local cemeteries. At 10 a.m. a parade will leave Scarborough High School where it will procede to the Maine Veterans’ Home. A ceremony and guest speaker will be accompanied by music selections.
Maine Veterans’ Home Administrator Steve Garde said the home’s CEO Ret. Col. Kelley Cash will serve as guest speaker. He also said, most of the home’s residents leave the building to take part in the event.
“Most of them are from World War II, so we have them participate as much as they can,” Garde said, adding, “It means a great deal to them that they’re remembered and they get to take part in remembrance of their fallen compatriots,” he said.
Bob McNally, organizer of Old Orchard Beach’s parade, called the town’s celebration the largest in the state. McNally, a member of VFW Post 7997 in Old Orchard Beach, said when he took over planning of the event seven years ago, 19 units participated in the parade and in years prior to that, only handfuls of people attended it.
He said during the past seven years the number of participants has grown annually; this year there will be 62 units in the parade. The number of onlookers has also increased, “tremendously,” he said.
The parade will begin at 1 p.m. from the Old Orchard Beach Police Department at the corner of E. Emerson Cummins Road and Saco Avenue and proceed down Saco Avenue to Old Orchard Street, down Old Orchard Street to First Street and end at Memorial Park with a service recognition of the lives lost and dedications made by servicemen and women throughout the years.
A number of local and state dignitaries will attend the parade, including Sen. Susan Collins. Grand Marshal is candidate for Congress and newly returned Iraq veteran, Charles Summers. McNally is a longtime friend of Summers and said he plans to join Old Orchard Beach’s VFW Post soon.
McNally said organizing this parade has special meaning to him because he is a World War II veteran, with a story that could be considered rather unique.
“I was 15 years old when Pearl Harbor happened. I was in the car and heard it on the radio. Two days later I went down signed up in a office in the city and joined the Army Air Corps,” he said, adding the Air Force hadn’t been established yet.
McNally had to fake his birth certificate to do this – one must be at least 18 years old to join the military. After six weeks he went to Boston for various exams, where several doctors inquired about his age.
“I had rehearsed for weeks and weeks, when I graduated from high school, how old I was, when I made my application to go to college – everything to make sure it all suited the age I had to be,” he said.
While doctors continued to question him during his visit in Boston, they eventually let him through because they were too busy to question him further, McNally said. He went right to basic training, his family unaware of what he was doing.
By the time he was 16 years old, McNally was a sargeant, had flying status and was satisfied with his accomplishments thus far. It wasn’t long before he volunteered to go overseas – he also decided it was time to call and let his mother know what was going on.
“I called her up and – oh my god – she called [President] Roosevelt,” McNally said, adding she was concerned because she thought her son was too young to be in the military and go overseas.
After much persistence, he said she got through to the President, who contacted McNally’s commanding officer. McNally didn’t want to be discharged and eventually he worked out a deal with his commanding officer, Roosevelt and his mother. Since McNally was only two credits shy of graduating high school, he was made to finish his studies and travel by school bus to a local high school in Florida, where he was stationed.
McNally had to bring his report card to his commanding officer and once he completed the two credits, he was allowed to go overseas where he spent three and a half years.
McNally’s story is one of many examples of soldiers who have sacrifice and served the country and encourages the community to attend Old Orchard Beach’s events to remember those soldiers who have the ultimate sacrifice.
Cape Elizabeth will celebrate Memorial Day with the traditional parade and memorial ceremonies. The parade beings at 9 a.m. and begins at the intersection of Fowler Road and Old Ocean House Road, continues north on Route 77 and takes a left onto Scott Dyer Road ending at the War Veteran’s Memorial.
The Grand Marshal is Cape Elizabeth resident Jim Gibbons, who was recently awarded the Silver Star for combat action in Vietnam.
In South Portland, the parade route begins at Southern Maine Community College at the east end of Broadway and continues west on Broadway to Cottage Road where it will turn right and end at Legion Square. A short ceremony will follow.
Seniors from South Portland High School will sell balloons, pinwheels and flags along the route to raise money for Project Graduation, which is a chemical-free, all night party for graduating seniors.
Staff Writer
People in cities and towns throughout Maine will be wearing red, white and blues this Memorial Day, May 26, while honoring the country’s fallen soldiers. Up and down the coast, groups have organized observance ceremonies, parades and other community events.
Scarborough will observe the holiday beginning at 7:45 a.m. A bus will leave the Libby-Mitchell Post 76, American Legion on Libby Road for services at local cemeteries. At 10 a.m. a parade will leave Scarborough High School where it will procede to the Maine Veterans’ Home. A ceremony and guest speaker will be accompanied by music selections.
Maine Veterans’ Home Administrator Steve Garde said the home’s CEO Ret. Col. Kelley Cash will serve as guest speaker. He also said, most of the home’s residents leave the building to take part in the event.
“Most of them are from World War II, so we have them participate as much as they can,” Garde said, adding, “It means a great deal to them that they’re remembered and they get to take part in remembrance of their fallen compatriots,” he said.
Bob McNally, organizer of Old Orchard Beach’s parade, called the town’s celebration the largest in the state. McNally, a member of VFW Post 7997 in Old Orchard Beach, said when he took over planning of the event seven years ago, 19 units participated in the parade and in years prior to that, only handfuls of people attended it.
He said during the past seven years the number of participants has grown annually; this year there will be 62 units in the parade. The number of onlookers has also increased, “tremendously,” he said.
The parade will begin at 1 p.m. from the Old Orchard Beach Police Department at the corner of E. Emerson Cummins Road and Saco Avenue and proceed down Saco Avenue to Old Orchard Street, down Old Orchard Street to First Street and end at Memorial Park with a service recognition of the lives lost and dedications made by servicemen and women throughout the years.
A number of local and state dignitaries will attend the parade, including Sen. Susan Collins. Grand Marshal is candidate for Congress and newly returned Iraq veteran, Charles Summers. McNally is a longtime friend of Summers and said he plans to join Old Orchard Beach’s VFW Post soon.
McNally said organizing this parade has special meaning to him because he is a World War II veteran, with a story that could be considered rather unique.
“I was 15 years old when Pearl Harbor happened. I was in the car and heard it on the radio. Two days later I went down signed up in a office in the city and joined the Army Air Corps,” he said, adding the Air Force hadn’t been established yet.
McNally had to fake his birth certificate to do this – one must be at least 18 years old to join the military. After six weeks he went to Boston for various exams, where several doctors inquired about his age.
“I had rehearsed for weeks and weeks, when I graduated from high school, how old I was, when I made my application to go to college – everything to make sure it all suited the age I had to be,” he said.
While doctors continued to question him during his visit in Boston, they eventually let him through because they were too busy to question him further, McNally said. He went right to basic training, his family unaware of what he was doing.
By the time he was 16 years old, McNally was a sargeant, had flying status and was satisfied with his accomplishments thus far. It wasn’t long before he volunteered to go overseas – he also decided it was time to call and let his mother know what was going on.
“I called her up and – oh my god – she called [President] Roosevelt,” McNally said, adding she was concerned because she thought her son was too young to be in the military and go overseas.
After much persistence, he said she got through to the President, who contacted McNally’s commanding officer. McNally didn’t want to be discharged and eventually he worked out a deal with his commanding officer, Roosevelt and his mother. Since McNally was only two credits shy of graduating high school, he was made to finish his studies and travel by school bus to a local high school in Florida, where he was stationed.
McNally had to bring his report card to his commanding officer and once he completed the two credits, he was allowed to go overseas where he spent three and a half years.
McNally’s story is one of many examples of soldiers who have sacrifice and served the country and encourages the community to attend Old Orchard Beach’s events to remember those soldiers who have the ultimate sacrifice.
Cape Elizabeth will celebrate Memorial Day with the traditional parade and memorial ceremonies. The parade beings at 9 a.m. and begins at the intersection of Fowler Road and Old Ocean House Road, continues north on Route 77 and takes a left onto Scott Dyer Road ending at the War Veteran’s Memorial.
The Grand Marshal is Cape Elizabeth resident Jim Gibbons, who was recently awarded the Silver Star for combat action in Vietnam.
In South Portland, the parade route begins at Southern Maine Community College at the east end of Broadway and continues west on Broadway to Cottage Road where it will turn right and end at Legion Square. A short ceremony will follow.
Seniors from South Portland High School will sell balloons, pinwheels and flags along the route to raise money for Project Graduation, which is a chemical-free, all night party for graduating seniors.
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