Communities mark Memorial Day with parades, salutes to honor those who died in fight for freedom

As a cacophony of marching bands Monday helped power Memorial Day parades that snaked through small-town streets — marchers and onlookers alike draped in red, white and blue — it was the small details that resonated loudest for one Alle-Kiski Valley veteran.

Don Donahue, a Veterans of Foreign Wars commander and Navy veteran who grew up in Frazer, quietly watched about 9 a.m. as a veteran placed a single, white carnation — representing purity — at the foot of a Springdale war memorial.

A red flower followed for courage, a tribute to soldiers’ bloodshed for the cause of freedom.

Donahue, like his comrades, walked down the narrow cement path to the memorial, paused and saluted.

Before him stood granite walls whose myriad names chronicled the Alle-Kiski Valley’s contributions to America’s military — from Bertha Aleskovitz in World War II to Michael A. Yaksetich, who served during Desert Storm.

A few feet away, a cadre of officers fired shots into the morning air.

Two trumpeters offered a plaintive take of taps.

“When we go through our rituals, please remember them all,” said Donahue, 61, of Natrona Heights, whose years of Navy service in the 1980s included two trips to Beirut. “You know, most of us are here because of those who aren’t.”

Those who served the U.S. military and returned home are no strangers to Pennsylvania.

The state boasts the eighth-largest veteran population nationwide and counts among its residents more than 280,000 veterans, state data shows.

Allegheny County has sliced the biggest piece of that population pie. About 1 in every 10 veterans living in Pennsylvania in 2022 called the county home, state data shows.

Throughout the Valley on Monday, those veterans and their families owned the day.

They marched alongside Boy Scouts and baseball players in Lower Burrell, where neighbors camped out in lawn chairs to watch the colorful parade as it headed toward the borough’s VFW post. Morning services paid tribute to the fallen at 8:30 a.m. at the World War II memorial outside the West Deer Municipal Building.

In Vandergrift, a parade marched from Kiski Area East Primary School down to the Casino Theatre. Some read aloud letters sent home by servicemen from various wars who were killed in action.

One veteran, Leechburg resident and firefighter Jim Vigna, celebrated Memorial Day this year by driving his department’s 1935 Seagrave fire truck with a special guest: Bishop Larry J. Kulick, who heads the Diocese of Greensburg.

Memorial Day, Kulick said, “gives us a chance to honor those who paid the ultimate sacrfice for our freedoms, including our religious freedoms.”

For some reflecting on their service, the decision to enlist in the military still felt pragmatic on this Memorial Day.

Apollo native Russell Zimmerman was just 18 when he enlisted in the Navy. He served for four years on the USS Intrepid before returning to Southwestern Pennsylvania to work as a machine operator for U.S. Steel.

“I was young, I didn’t have work and I decided I needed the experience,” said Zimmerman, 83, smoking a cigarette and sporting a USS Intrepid baseball cap as he waited for the Lower Burrell parade to begin.

For Air Force veteran Renee Munshower, though, military service was more of a family endeavor.

Standing outside Robert L. Davies VFW Post 868, she talked about how her grandfather served in World War I. Her uncle served, too. And her brother. And multiple cousins.

Munshower, a VFW post finance officer, estimated she has been turning out for the Lower Burrell parade for about five years now.

“It just keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger — and that’s great,” said Munshower, 50, who grew up in Lower Burrell and lives in Shaler. “I like that everything is centered around paying tribute to our fallen veterans and to military members.”

Munshower served in the Air Force for more than 20 years — from 1992 to 2014.

And she admitted she thought back to her years of service as she walked Monday in her hometown’s Memorial Day parade.

“When you march in that parade and you wear this uniform and people thank you,” she said, pausing as her eyes welled with tears, “it just makes it worth it.”