In place of an individual grand marshal at this year’s parade in Chepachet, the committee will recognize “every solider” by setting up a Missing Man Table for the duration of the three-day festival.
While the committee received “some really good nominations” of grand marshals from the public, Stephanie Westgate, vice-chairwoman of the committee, says that honoring everybody is a “great idea.”
In the 90th year of the patriotic event, Westgate told The Valley Breeze & Observer that the parade committee wants to make the celebration stand out in people’s memories. “It’s going to be a good year,” she said.
The Missing Man Table will be set up and manned at Glocester Memorial Park and on a float in the parade. Six empty place settings on the table represent the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, Coast Guard, and civilians who are missing in action, prisoners of war, fallen, or currently serving.
The table is round to show “everlasting concern” and includes a white cloth, a red rose, a yellow ribbon, a slice of lemon, a pinch of salt, a lighted candle, a Bible, an inverted glass, and six empty chairs, according to information on the National League of POW/MIA Families’ website.
Each holds a certain meaning. The slice of lemon represents “their bitter fate, captured and missing in a foreign land,” while the salt “symbolizes the tears of (the) missing and their families.”
A Missing Man ceremony will take place on Saturday, July 2, at 7 p.m., at the Glocester Memorial Field before a fireworks display at 9 p.m., according to a press release from the parade committee.
The idea formed after committee members talked with their original choice for grand marshal, Robert Edmands, of Glocester, a Purple Heart recipient who served in Vietnam with the 9th Infantry Division.
Edmands, who was in the Army from August 1966 to July 1968, was wounded on February 10, 1968 during the Tet Offensive, he shared with Westgate.
When committee members approached him, Westgate said that Edmands didn’t want to be singled out for the role of grand marshal. While he told Westgate, “This has really helped me after all these years to be remembered,” he asked if they could instead gather a group of veterans.
After a few “heartfelt and eye-opening conversations” with Edmands, they settled on the idea of recognizing “every solider.”
During the parade, committee members are asking that all attendees stand and place their hands over their hearts as the “Grand Marshal, Every Soldier” float passes by and “to stand and clap for the Color Guard, veterans, and soldiers (who) will be marching in the parade.”
Source: MELANIE THIBEAULT, Valley Breeze & Observer Staff Writer
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