Memorial Day 2011: 'It's the least we can do'

The kinship Peter Puhalla shares with the late uncle he never knew runs deeper than family - a connection born of blood certainly but in a very real sense nurtured there, too.
In blood and in sacrifice.
Frank A. Puhalla was a 23-year-old Army private, a paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division serving in World War II, when he was killed in action in North Africa on Sept. 17, 1943, four years before his nephew's birth.
Last week, as Mr. Puhalla and other volunteers from Throop American Legion Herbert Clark Post 180 placed fresh American flags on the graves of 488 veterans at four cemeteries in the borough, the 64-year-old Air Force veteran paused at his uncle's marker and reflected on ties that bind them all.
"Even though I never met him, I feel that I knew him," said Mr. Puhalla, the Post 180 commander who spent 12 months in Vietnam from 1967 into 1968. "Once a veteran, always a veteran. You can ask anyone. Once you serve, that's it - you're brothers."
Today, on Memorial Day, Northeast Pennsylvania will honor those who have died in service to the nation with parades and solemn services, with patriotic music and quiet moments of reflection in cemeteries where soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines lie in graves adorned with crisp flags.
But on the day set aside for all Americans to remember the fallen, the inescapable fact is living veterans - almost invariably and probably naturally - are the ones who have voluntarily taken on the task of keeping alive the memory of the dead locally.
"That's true," said Robert Tuffy, who served with the Marine Corps during the Korean War and is now director of the Lackawanna County Office of Veterans Affairs. "Don't get me wrong - there are a lot of organizations, schoolkids and other people, but it really is the veterans taking care of the veterans."
Over the past several weeks, it is the 61 veterans organizations in the county - sometimes on their own, sometimes with the help of volunteers - that have had the primary responsibility for planting new flags on upward of 25,000 graves of men and women who have served the nation from the Civil War through the ongoing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Chances are if you attend a public Memorial Day ceremony or activity today, it will have been planned and largely executed by veterans.
Post 180 adjutant Ralph Policichio, a Vietnam-era veteran who was part of the small group placing flags last week in Throop, said he considers it a privilege to make sure deceased service members are properly remembered, especially those who made the ultimate sacrifice.

The kinship Peter Puhalla shares with the late uncle he never knew runs deeper than family - a connection born of blood certainly but in a very real sense nurtured there, too.
In blood and in sacrifice.
Frank A. Puhalla was a 23-year-old Army private, a paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division serving in World War II, when he was killed in action in North Africa on Sept. 17, 1943, four years before his nephew's birth.
Last week, as Mr. Puhalla and other volunteers from Throop American Legion Herbert Clark Post 180 placed fresh American flags on the graves of 488 veterans at four cemeteries in the borough, the 64-year-old Air Force veteran paused at his uncle's marker and reflected on ties that bind them all.
"Even though I never met him, I feel that I knew him," said Mr. Puhalla, the Post 180 commander who spent 12 months in Vietnam from 1967 into 1968. "Once a veteran, always a veteran. You can ask anyone. Once you serve, that's it - you're brothers."
Today, on Memorial Day, Northeast Pennsylvania will honor those who have died in service to the nation with parades and solemn services, with patriotic music and quiet moments of reflection in cemeteries where soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines lie in graves adorned with crisp flags.
But on the day set aside for all Americans to remember the fallen, the inescapable fact is living veterans - almost invariably and probably naturally - are the ones who have voluntarily taken on the task of keeping alive the memory of the dead locally.
"That's true," said Robert Tuffy, who served with the Marine Corps during the Korean War and is now director of the Lackawanna County Office of Veterans Affairs. "Don't get me wrong - there are a lot of organizations, schoolkids and other people, but it really is the veterans taking care of the veterans."
Over the past several weeks, it is the 61 veterans organizations in the county - sometimes on their own, sometimes with the help of volunteers - that have had the primary responsibility for planting new flags on upward of 25,000 graves of men and women who have served the nation from the Civil War through the ongoing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Chances are if you attend a public Memorial Day ceremony or activity today, it will have been planned and largely executed by veterans.
Post 180 adjutant Ralph Policichio, a Vietnam-era veteran who was part of the small group placing flags last week in Throop, said he considers it a privilege to make sure deceased service members are properly remembered, especially those who made the ultimate sacrifice.