Pioneer Memorial Gardens carries on ceremony on Memorial Day
JOEL MARTIN | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 6 years, 3 months AGO
Marcia Cordell places flowers on the graves of her in-laws Waco and Naomi Cordell at the Memorial Day ceremony at Pioneer Memorial Gardens in Moses Lake Monday.
Joel Martin/Columbia Basin Herald
Flags line the path at Pioneer Memorial Gardens for the Memorial Day ceremony Monday.
Joel Martin/Columbia Basin Herald
Kids play on a monument while their elders visit graves at Pioneer Memorial Gardens Monday morning.
Joel Martin/Columbia Basin Herald
Joel Martin has been with the Columbia Basin Herald for more than 25 years in a variety of roles and is the most-tenured employee in the building. Martin is a married father of eight and enjoys spending time with his children and his wife, Christina. He is passionate about the paper’s mission of informing the people of the Columbia Basin because he knows it is important to record the history of the communities the publication serves. | May 26, 2020 11:54 PM
MOSES LAKE — The Memorial Day ceremony at Pioneer Memorial Gardens cemetery brought out a scattered crowd of people Monday morning to visit graves and pay their respects to fallen heroes.
As in past years, flags lined the pathways of the cemetery, located east of Moses Lake, and smaller ones marked the graves of those who had served in the armed forces. The gun salute ended up being only two shots, as the third blank in the rifle was a dud.
“We only had a week to prepare,” said rifleman Ross Bacon, a member of the Grant County Light Foot militia, whose hat proclaimed him an Iraq War veteran.
Taps was blown by two buglers, one of whom was Fil Rivera, a retired Green Beret and veteran of the Vietnam War and the Dominican Civil War.
“Most people don’t remember that one,” Rivera said of the invasion of the Dominican Republic in 1965. The U.S. intervention came when President Lyndon Johnson sent troops to the Caribbean nation to prevent what he thought was going to be a communist revolution similar to Cuba’s.
“We came to liberate what didn’t actually happen,” Rivera said.
Former state senator Harold Hochstatter addressed the gathering, speaking on courage, risk and sacrifice.
“I want to address you on the idea — we’ve all heard it — ‘if we can save just one life, it’s worth it,’” Hochstatter said. “Let me tell you about some people who didn’t believe that. The people who went out and shot the king’s troops didn’t believe that. They went out and risked their lives for this country.”
With allusions to the Alamo, Abraham Lincoln, the biblical apostles and Joe Hooper, for whom Moses Lake’s American Legion post is named, Hochstatter spoke for about five minutes on the importance of stepping up and putting one’s life on the line.
“(Winston) Churchill said that the prime virtue is courage; it makes all other virtues possible. I think we need to be reminded of the other side: cowardice is reasonable. We can find all kinds of reasons to back out of things. Courage says ‘we’ll take them on.’ And this country has a history of doing that,” Hochstatter said.
ARTICLES BY JOEL MARTIN
Quincy National Night Out scales down
QUINCY — Quincy’s National Night Out was more compact this year, which worked out well, said QPD Sgt. Joe Westby, who’s in charge of event planning for the Quincy Police Department. “National Night Out is a big event, and the fact that we’re able to shrink it up is like a breath of fresh air,” Westby said. “If you're always doing the same thing, it's kind of nice to switch things up and see how it works.” National Night Out took place Thursday on the block of C Street next to the police station, a shift from previous years when it was held at Lauzier Park. The smaller space meant fewer emergency vehicles for children to explore, but it also meant less walking for attendees. Grant County Fire District 5 brought a fire truck, and the Grant County Sheriff’s Office had a patrol boat. Renew, the Grant County behavioral health agency, had a booth and so did Quincy Partnership for Youth. Veterans Operation Creation sang the national anthem, and the Quincy Animal Shelter brought kittens that piled over each other making friends with passersby. As before, the QPD served grilled hot dogs.
Quincy Police retirements leave big shoes to fill
QUINCY — There are some big shoes to fill at the Quincy Police Department. “We’re losing 48 years of experience between them,” Quincy Police Chief Ryan Green said at the retirement party for Capt. Jorge Trujillo and Det. Damon Powell Thursday. Trujillo, who grew up in Sunnyside, has been with QPD for 19 years, he said, coming on as a patrol officer fresh out of the military. From there he served as a field training officer, a detective and finally captain. “I consider him my left-hand man,” Green said. “He runs the operations side of the house … He knows the agency very well, and he knows the community.” Trujillo has some projects around the house to tackle now that he’s retired, he said.
Big fun on a small scale
Wheat Land Communities’ Fair opens Thursday
RITZVILLE — The Wheat Land Communities’ Fair isn’t as big or as flashy as some of the county fairs around central Washington, but the folks who keep it going like it just the way it is. “It’s somewhere you can go and get an old-time traditional feeling, and you’re comfortable letting your kids roam the grounds and experience all that it has to offer,” said Board Member Lori Williams. “It’s more of a feeling than (one) specific thing,” The fair starts Thursday in Ritzville and runs through Sunday. Starting Friday, the 56th Ritzville Rodeo will take place alongside the fair at the rodeo grounds. This year the entertainment budget was expanded, Williams said, to be able to offer more fun that’s covered by the cost of admission. For the kids, there’s face painting, balloon art, Lego crafts, races, contests and games. Children can also ride on a little train towed around the fairgrounds behind a tractor.