As featured speaker for this year’s Memorial Day observance hosted by American Legion Dexter Allen Post 90, Bulloch County Sheriff Noel Brown plans to talk about the American flag.
Monday’s observance, free and with the public invited as always, will begin with music at 10:30 a.m. followed by the speaking program at 11 a.m. in the Emma Kelly Theater at the Averitt Center for the Arts in downtown Statesboro.
“It’s an honor to be asked to speak, because that’s a very important day to me,” Brown said. “I’ve actually been talking to kids a little bit, closing the school year out, about respecting the flag and what the flag means. You know, they’ll talk about freedom, and it is about freedom, but it’s also many other things that are layered in that flag, with 13 stripes, 50 stars, a blue back border and white and red stripes.”
Besides his more than 24 years thus far in law enforcement, Brown served four years in the Air Force and is a veteran of the 1990–91 Gulf War. He was deployed to northern Saudi Arabia and southern Iraq with a unit that fueled aircraft and deposited fuel bladders from cargo planes in the desert to keep ground vehicles rolling.
Brown had about three months to prepare his remarks and has put a lot of thought into them, he said. American Legion Post 90 Senior Vice Commander Dan Foglio, who plans the Memorial Day observances each May and the Veterans Day observances in November, gave him that much advance notice.
The sheriff also had a part in the ceremony last year, when he and Statesboro Chief of Police Mike Broadhead, both new in their roles then, intoned the names of Bulloch County residents who lost their lives in war.
Intoning of names
Each Memorial Day the local legion post gives several individuals the honor of reading aloud the names of those from Bulloch “who gave all” at various periods of history.
This year County Manager Tom Couch will intone the names of those who died during World War I. Deputy Rey Rodriguez and Army veteran George Sterling will intone the names from World War II, assigned to the Atlantic and Pacific theaters, respectively. Navy veteran Marvin Grimm will intone the names from the Korean War. Then Army veteran Randy Brigman will read those from the Vietnam War; and Army veteran Bob Babot, the names of those who died in Iraq and Afghanistan.
American Legion Post 90 Commander Charles “Skip” Campbell is scheduled to welcome participants after the posting of the flags by the Knights of Columbus, led by Ed Brussard and R. Drummer, and before an opening prayer by Post 90 Chaplain J.D. Turner. Others with speaking or ceremonial roles in are Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Michael Trevino, Dr. Floyd Soriano, Averitt Center for the Arts Deputy Director Rahn Hutcheson, veterans’ widows Michelle LaBlanc and Vickie O’Brien, Army veteran Keith Barber and Navy veteran Bob Marsh, the post adjutant.
For the introductory music beginning at 10:30 a.m., Michael Braz will play piano and Brandi Harvey will sing a few patriotic songs, according to the printed program.
At the end of the ceremony, the crowd is expected to sing “God Bless America” after the chaplain’s closing prayer and before Enrico Soriano plays Taps.
Joiner Anderson Funeral Home, Awards South, Chick-Fil-A, McAlister’s Deli and Vandy’s, as well as the Averitt Center, contribute to the legion post’s programs for the public. Vandy’s has again agreed to give veterans “a meal on the house,” Foglio said.
Herald reporter Al Hackle may be reached at (912) 489-9458.