Honoring real heroes

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Memorial Day ceremony

Memorial Day ceremonies in downtown Janesville, including a parade and ceremony at Lower Courthouse Park

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JANESVILLE — James Tucker almost cried.

Tucker is a member of Boy Scout Troop 405 and one of the Scouts who helped place commemorative wreaths Monday during Janesville’s main Memorial Day ceremony at Lower Courthouse Park downtown.

Tucker nearly teared up when master of ceremonies Mike Jeffords was recalling conversations with Medal of Honor recipients before the dedication of the Vietnam War Memorial—“The Wall”—in 1982 in Washington, D.C.

“When he was acknowledging the people in the war, the people who fought for our country … it was kind of sad,” said Tucker, a 14-year-old student at Janesville’s Marshall Middle School.

Jeffords told the crowd that spilled beyond the park amphitheater that all the Medal of Honor recipients said they were just doing their jobs and that they were not heroes.

The real heroes, the medal recipients said, were those who died for their country.

Jeffords described himself not as a veteran, but as a survivor.

“I thought they always wanted to be heroes, not just recognized as survivors,” Tucker said.

Jeffords’ words also touched the emotions of Cody Langer, another Marshall student and member of Boy Scout Troop 540.

“I never heard the other point of view on what they thought until today,” Langer said. “I’d only seen it through my eyes because I never thought of them being survivors, not being heroes.

“It made me think they don’t want to take all the credit. They want to give away the credit,” Langer said.

Monday’s ceremony was the first in Janesville in which Girl and Boy Scouts helped veterans and veterans’ relatives place the commemorative wreaths for those who did not survive World War I, World War II, the Korean War, Vietnam War, Persian Gulf War and the current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The ceremony followed a parade that started at High and West Milwaukee streets and ended at the courthouse park on South Main Street. People lined both sides of the street for the entire route.

As American flags passed, applause rippled through the crowd to greet each group of veterans and active service members.

Police officers said they were told by those who had come to many previous Memorial Day parades in Janesville that turnout was better than in years past. High gasoline prices kept people home for the holiday, and good weather helped bring many downtown for the parade, several people said.

Michelle Sharp, a student at Parkview High School in Orfordville and a first-place winner in the annual Voice of Democracy essay competition, gave the Memorial Day address at the ceremony.

An alto saxophone player in the Parkview band, Sharp said playing “The Star-Spangled Banner” stirs her emotions because she remembers her uncle Roger, who was wounded while serving Vietnam.

“Every time I play ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ and look at the American flag, the flag stands for the freedom that my uncle fought for,” Sharp said. “I feel so greatly honored.

“I try not to take my freedom for granted, even though I know that I will never lose it to anybody because of the thousands of Americans that defend our country and what we stand for every day.”