Dear Editor:

As the 2016 Memorial Day Parade Marshal, it was my responsibility to decide if the 2016 Memorial Day parade should be canceled due to the impending rain. All the weather aps and technology available to us at 6 a.m. on Memorial Day indicated that it was going to start raining at about 8 a.m. and would be a full rain event by 9 a.m. For all concerned, I had to make the call at 6 a.m. so I decided to cancel the parade. Unfortunately, the weather didn’t cooperate when decisions had to be made and that rain event didn’t happen. I made it a point to go to all the parade sites to be sure those who didn’t get the word and came to pay honor to our veterans and those who made the ultimate sacrifice, knew the parade was canceled. What I didn’t do, and should have, was to contact the online Register and media outlets to ensure the broader community got the word. I sincerely appreciate everyone's understanding. I had to chuckle a little when someone said….”they didn’t cancel D-Day because of weather…” how true!

We did decide to honor our fallen heroes by holding a small ceremony at each memorial site. It was important, we thought, to keep the numbers small as we didn’t have traffic control. So, thanks to Barry Sherman, Bob Raudenbush, Fran Nicoletta, Phil Chapman, and SSgt. Flores USMC (who came from the USMC Reserve facility in Brunswick with his wife), we rendered the appropriate honors. In retrospect, we should have used our veteran network to let our brothers and sisters know we were doing this, as the traffic would not have presented a problem. I sincerely apologize to my fellow veterans.

Memorial Day is a very special event in our country and especially on the peninsula and we veterans always appreciate everyone coming out to join us in remembering our service men and women who didn’t come home from war.

So, again, I sincerely apologize for canceling the parade. The last time was 26 years ago I am told. And on behalf of all our veterans, thank you for your support. And to all our veterans, I salute you.

Commander David Patch, USN (Ret)

Marshal 2016 Memorial Day Parade

Vice Commander, American Legion Charles E Sherman Post 36