Marine Corps and National Guard wartime veteran Larry Shatteen, keynote speaker for Monday’s observance at the Emma Kelly Theater in his hometown of Statesboro, asserted that Americans must oppose trends to rebrand Memorial Day as nothing more than “the first unofficial day of summer.”
He called on veterans to lead in reminding other Americans of the “customs, courtesies and traditions” appropriate for remembering those who “gave all” for their country and suggested that these include not only those who died in wars but their families and those who live with scars literal and figurative.
Now the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 10825 commander, Shatteen was introduced by American Legion Dexter Allen Post 90 Commander Bobby Godwin. The American Legion post, with support from other sponsors, hosts the annual Memorial Day public observance in May and a Veterans Day observance in November. But the long-established local American Legion and VFW posts collaborate, and a number of veterans, Shatteen among them, are active in both.
His remarks followed the “Intoning of Fallen Heroes” portion of the program in which other veterans had taken turns calling out the names of service members from Bulloch County who died in wartime, from World War I through the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“I’m humbled, as they read the names of our fallen heroes, you know I sat there and I got choked up because they paved the way for me, and I take that personally. They paved the way for each and every one of us. I take a look at where we are here in America now and I go back for a moment,” Shatteen said.
“I love this, the way everyone is here together, because when I was a little boy here, a little country boy here in Statesboro, Georgia – You know what I’m coming at? Jim Crow was alive. Segregation was alive,” he said. “Even to get into the Georgia Theater to here, I had to go through a door over there, go all the way to the back and go up there to the balcony. That’s where the blacks were. The whites were down here.
“So now we can come full circle, and come to a point where we’re here together to take and celebrate our heroes,” he said.
Shatteen spoke to an integrated core group of veterans and other presenters on stage and to the public filling nearly half the ground floor seats, with just a few people seated in the balcony.
Memorial Day, he observed, has become only a day off for many people. He mentioned that some furniture stores and car dealerships were holding Memorial Day sales.
“Look at a sale, and they … give you 15 percent off,” Shatteen said. “You don’t need it, but you’re going to buy it because it’s 15 percent off. Now, had you not gone to that store, you would have saved 100 percent.”
Born in Statesboro, Shatteen, who will be 69 in July, graduated in 1973 from high school at Marvin Pittman Laboratory School and continued at Georgia Southern (then College). Originally planning to become a teacher, he then felt he had to get out of Statesboro and visited Air Force and Marine recruiters, asking how he could get to fly jets.
After completing Marine boot camp, he returned to Georgia Southern, attained a Bachelor of Science in mathematics and was also commissioned a second lieutenant in the Marine Corps upon graduation. He never did get to fly jets, but he served 14 years in the Marines, attaining the rank of captain and a master’s degree in human resources management. He was deployed to combat as a logistics and embarkation officer with the 6th Marine Expeditionary Brigade in the 1990 Operation Desert Shield and 1991 Gulf War in Kuwait and Iraq, known as Operation Desert Storm. After leaving the Marine Corps, he joined the Georgia Army National Guard, with which he served another 14 years as a full-time noncommissioned officer, to sergeant first-class, and was deployed to Iraq in 2003 and to Afghanistan in 2009.
Led funeral details
As part of his duties as a young second lieutenant, Shatteen had served six months as a funeral detail officer. As such, he coordinated the detail, and after the U.S. flag from atop the casket was carefully folded and tucked into a triangle by six Marine pallbearers, he had the honor of presenting the flag to the next-of-kin of the deceased Marine or veteran.
“So my job was to make sure that the honor and respect due to that fallen comrade, that fallen veteran, was given, to make sure that the colors are folded right, to make sure that the honor guard’s rifles went off right, to make sure that the music went off right, and to make sure that I presented the colors to the next of kin so that they had the respect and honor due to that family member,” Shatteen said.
Nowadays when he takes “a look at those customs, courtesies and traditions” that he “knew back in 1977-1978,” he is sometimes disappointed.
“And now when we go to a funeral, you may have two people folding a flag, you may have taped music – you don’t have a bugler, you may have taped music – so we’ve got to be very, very careful on how things have degraded and have taken and gone to this point,” he said.
“We’re here today to remember those soldiers, those sailors, those marines, those airmen,” Shatteen continued. “How do we do this? You know, it’s not America’s fault that they don’t know how to take and commemorate this day. It’s our fault. It’s my fault. You know why? Because nobody can take care of a veteran better than a veteran.”
Nobody – including school teachers – could teach the courtesies and traditions of military veterans better than veterans themselves, he asserted.
“So we’ve got to take and give it to those schools, and teach those children that there’s more to life than Memorial Day being the first unofficial day of summer,” Shatteen said.
School is out for most students now, and places such as Splash in the Boro water park are drawing crowds and 45 million Americans were expected to be traveling Monday, he acknowledged, but noted that this is not why people have the day off.
“We’ve got to take and concentrate of what is true, what is right, what is just, because Memorial Day is not for the dead. It’s for the living, and for those survivors who’re still back here, that’s taking care and memorializing those individuals who’ve been interned.”
‘All gave all’
Noting the well-known saying, “All gave some, but some gave all,” Shatteen asserted that in some sense “All gave all.” This includes family members of those who worried about their loved ones while they were deployed, including those who did not return, and those service members who were wounded and awarded the Purple Heart, some with injuries that last a lifetime, and “those still suffering through Agent Orange …, still suffering from PTSD.”
Godwin, the American Legion Post 90 commander, had mentioned some of the same points in his remarks, which included a call for support for the Legion’s ongoing “Be the One” initiative.
“This campaign is a powerful call to action, focusing on mental health and the prevention of veteran suicide,” Godwin said. “Its message is clear: each of us can play a role in saving lives, providing support and ensuring no veteran feels alone in their struggles.”
Memorial Day 2025 observance sponsors included Joiner-Anderson Funeral Home, the Averitt Center for the Arts, which operates the theater, Chick-fil-A and Texas Roadhouse, as well as American Legion Post 90, which invited everyone to lunch at its headquarters afterward.
Leaders of the local Daughters of the American Revolution and Sons of the American Legion chapters took part in the ceremony, and the DAR had provided doughnuts and coffee before it started.
Pianist Isaac Sherrod again performed the half-hour musical prelude, and, during the ceremony, an instrumental version of the Armed Forces Medley, with veterans standing for their specific service’s anthem. In a surprise, Shatteen sang the last verse of the Marine Hymn at the close of his speech.
A special quartet, consisting of Dan Hagan, Jim Payne, Jan Persson and Lisa Muldrew sang the National Anthem, and Muldrew soloed with “God Bless the USA.” At the end of the ceremony, those on stage led the crowd in “God Bless America.”
Remembering Bulloch County residents who died in wartime service
World War 1
• Dexter Allen, William Baker, Brooks Beasley, Lawson Bell, Willie Brannen, George Guy Burgess, Ernest Cannon Carswell Deal, Edwin DeLoach, George Falagan, Cephas Feelings, Herbert Folsom, Paul R. Groover, Neal H. Hagan, Jesse Lewis, Clarence Lyons, Blitch Parrish, Solomon Raymond, Thomas Raymond, Walter Sanders, John M. Sheffield, Louis O. Stanford, James Stewart, Claude B. Terry, Homer Van Buren Warnock and James W. Williams.
World War II (European Theater)
• Albert Allen, John D. Arnett, Inman Beasley, John T. Box, Dan C. Branson Jr., William H. Bryant, James O. Cooper, Erastus Don Ellis, Olice R. Evans, James H. Futch Jr., Thomas Hendley, James M. Hendrix, Herman Lavonne Hodges, William G. Holloway, Charles Hunnicutt, James Alvin Lanier, Jemison B. Lynn, Leonard E. Mincey, Cecil Morris, R. Earl Newton, Gerald B. Newton, George W. Oglesby, Austin K. Pennington, Jackie (Jake) Pennington, Berton H. Ramsey Jr., Troy J. Reddick, Barney W. Shelnutt, J.I. Shurling, Erastus D. Sills, Rufus A. Small, Rufus B. Stephens, Clifton Summerlin, James Walter Swint, Charles T. Thorton, Cecil Turner, Charles D. Wall, William D. Ward, Roland D. Warnock, Floyd B. Waters, Jack B. White, Ellis E. Williams, Hardy Talmadge Womack, John Gilbert Woodward and Frank R. Zetterower Jr.
World War II (Pacific Theater)
• James V. Anderson, Alfred C. Barnes, John C. Buie Jr., Barney J. Chester, Leroy Cowart Jr., John F. Darley Jr., Pierce Darwin DeLoach, Kelly Bruce Dickerson, Clyde Thomas Dixon, Bill M. Gerrald, Carl L. Gordy, F. Glen Hodges, Arthur J. Howell, Archie Redell Martin, Charles T. Martin, Carrol Minick, Earnest J. Poindexter Jr., Rupert R. Riggs, Jack L. Suddath and Albert A. Ward.
Korean War
• Larry B. Akins, David Chance, James A. Hunnicutt, Charles H. Lord Jr., George D. Tillman and Thomas Crosby.
Vietnam War
• James R. Brannen, Hubert F. Brinson, Lenard Coleman, Jessie W. Conner, David L. DeLoach, Luther M. Jones, Michael T. Row.
Afghanistan and Iraq Wars and other conflicts
• Mathew Gibbs, Charles H. Warren, Dennis P. Merck, Jerry L. Ganey, Brock H. Chavers, Isaac L. Johnson, Thomas Lee Moore, Judd Brinson and Chester J. McBride III.