Some parades were canceled because of the rain, but remarks honoring veterans and ceremonies such as wreath placements and taps were held.
Kenneth Tenney, left and Nello Rota both of Holyoke, and members of the Holyoke VFW Post 801, carry the World War II wreath during the annual Memorial Day ceremony which was held inside the Holyoke War Memorial.See more Memorial Day stories and photos on MassLive.com.
Cities and towns in Western Massachusetts honored veterans with Memorial Day ceremonies Monday that included reminders for people at home to remember the sacrifices of service men and women and their families.
Holyoke paid tribute to Marine Lance Cpl. Clayton K. Hough Jr., who returned from the Vietnam War in 1969 having lost his legs in a landmine explosion.
Hough died in 2004 at 55 of a heart attack and his name was added last year to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C.
Eileen (Hough) Boudreau, 55, of Holyoke, said that losing his legs failed to kill her brother’s spirit.
“My brother was great. He’d give you the shirt of his back. There wasn’t too much that kept him down. Just because he lost his legs didn’t keep him down. He owned his own house, he drove,” Boudreau said.
The rain forced the cancellation of parades in Holyoke, Chicopee and other areas but wreath-placements and officials’ remarks proceeded indoors.
In Amherst, a veterans official urged anyone who knows of veterans who are experiencing problems to contact service offices for help.
“We have to help the veterans coming home,” said Steven J. Connor, Hampshire County veterans services director.
In Agawam, Coleman F. Nee, state secretary of the Department of Veterans’ Services, said the best way to honor the fallen is to attend to the needs of their families and surviving comrades.
Nee, who also attended an observance in West Springfield, spoke at the 10th anniversary of the Massachusetts Veterans’ Memorial Cemetery on Main Street in Agawam.
“This is the cost of freedom, right here,” Air Force Veteran Marvin B. Howard, of Agawam, said at the cemetery.
“Everyone here gave of their time to serve their country. Some of them gave their lives. People should come to places like this and reflect,” Howard said.
In Springfield, residents and veterans gathered in the rain at St. Michael’s Cemetery to pay tribute to those who sacrificed their lives in war.
The Springfield ceremony began with a Mass celebrated in the mausoleum by the Most Rev. Timothy A. McDonnell, bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield.
An estimated 250 people attended in Springfield, which pleased Richard J. Tyrell, chairman of the Springfield Veterans Activities Committee.
“It shows their faith and their respect for the men and women who sacrificed so much for our country brought them out enthusiastically in this terrible weather,” Tyrell said.
“You can’t let the rain stop us from remembering our veterans who died for our country,” said Nelson Letendre of Springfield, a Vietnam War-era veteran.
At Chicopee High School, Col. Samuel C. Mahaney, operations squadron commander for the 439th Airlift Wing at Westover Air Reserve Base, spoke of sacrifices being made now by ocal residents in the armed forces and prices paid by those killed in past wars.
Since 2001, more than 1,500 troops from Westover have been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. A crew of reservists flew a C5 Galaxy jet into Afghanistan last week , he said.
“As we pause to reflect, let us not forget the families who live right in our midst,” Mahaney said.
Chicopee officials also recognized Gold Star parents and wives who have had a family member killed in war.
In his keynote address in the Florence section of Northampton, Easthampton resident Steven Gazzillo recalled three comrades who died during and after the taking of the Iraqi city Fallujah.
“In a different and better world, none of us would ever have heard of the place,” said Gazzillo, who did two tours of duty with the Marines in Iraq.
All three comrades died in their 20s, two of them in combat, Gazzillo said. The third, who suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, took his life after he returned home.
At the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Northampton, the singing group Eventide performed at the chapel as part of the Memorial Day service.
Easthampton honored veterans, including its 100 residents who have been killed in action, with a parade and ceremony on the lawn of the Emily Williston Memorial Library.
“Both towns and schools tend not to forget the sacrifices of those who have made our lives today possible. We think of those in our presence whose loved ones are in harm’s way,” said Robert W. Hill III, head of Williston Northampton School.
Holyoke also rededicated its restored Civil War monument and statue of Miss Liberty, which stands 16 feet tall in Veterans Park on Maple Street. It bears names of 55 Holyokers who died in the Civil War, officials said.
The restoration took four years and $11,000 in donations. The 135-year-old monument needed to be cleaned and its four bas-relief panels were coming unattached, officials said.
Reporters Diane Lederman, Peter Goonan, Jeanette Deforge, Jim Kinney, Fred Contrada and Brian Steele contributed to this story.