The ultimate sacrifice: Ormond Beach holds annual Memorial Day ceremony

Guest speaker retired U.S. Navy Cmdr. John Higgins urged attendees to remember the contributions of fallen veterans.

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March 29 marked the 50th anniversary of the return of U.S. troops from Vietnam. And though decades have passed, retired U.S. Navy Cmdr. John Higgins on May 29 still welcomed home his fellow Vietnam veterans — many of whom, he said, returned scarred from their service.

“One thing that sets Vietnam War veterans from Americans who served the nation’s other wars is the abysmal lack of a welcome many returned to,” Higgins said. “... We casually refer to the 58,000-plus Americans we lost in the war, while we speculate that as many as 20,000 other lives have been lost due to suicide, drugs and terminal disease. The fact that I was allowed to survive and come home left me wondering if I deserved the life I was granted.”

Higgins was the guest speaker for Ormond Beach’s annual Memorial Day Remembrance Service, held Monday, May 29, at Rockefeller Gardens with help from American Legion Post 167 and American Legion Unit 267. 

The service also featured a wreath-laying ceremony, a rifle salute, music by the Daytona Beach Concert Band, and the tolling of eight bells, which honors a sailor’s end of watch.

Higgins’ career in the Navy began in 1969 at the Naval Training Center in San Diego, California. After the Vietnam War ended in 1975, he re-enlisted and trained as an aviation electronics technician and later became a pilot in 1977. During his 30 years in the Navy, he was named “1980 Sea Sailor of the Year,” completed three six-month deployments to Antarctica and served as Officer in Charge at the Naval Air Facility Washington. 

In his address, Higgins highlighted the difference between Memorial Day and Veterans Day.

“Memorial Day commemorates the men and women who died while serving the United States Armed Forces, particularly those who died in battle or as a result of wounds sustained in battle,” he said. “In other words, the purpose of Memorial Day is to memorialize veterans who made the ultimate sacrifice to their country.”

It’s not a day for celebration, Higgins added. It’s for reflection. 

“So many men and women have given their all so we may enjoy the freedoms we have today,” he said. “I also think we must remember those who returned, but their lives have been completely turned around and will never be the same.”

Mayor Bill Partington, who issued a proclamation during the ceremony, said many locals have their own personal stories about fallen veterans.

“The truth of the matter is, it devastates the families and reminds us all that freedom is not free,” Partington said.

Retired U.S. Navy Rev. Willie Branch Jr. and retired U.S. Army Chaplain Rabbi Howard Schwartz delivered both the invocation and benediction at the ceremony. Branch offered a Christian prayer; Schwartz, a Jewish one.

Don’t thank a living veteran today, Branch said. Their day will come on Veterans Day, held annually on Nov. 11. 

“Go to the graveyard,” Branch said. “Thank them, for this is their day, not ours.”

 

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