SANDPOINT — Aaron Guyett can remember the commercial with clarity.

A young man enters an arena, crawling through obstacles and scaling a steel contraption before slaying the dragon, transforming into a Marine in dress blues.

"In all seriousness, I didn't think I was going to fight an actual dragon," Guyett said of his decision to join the Marines after his 1999 graduation from Post Falls High School. "But I knew evil existed and I was pretty certain that the Marine Corps was a fast track to fight against that evil. There's nothing like joining the Marine Corps so they can remove the truth and goodness of liberty and the beauty of love to help you understand that truth and goodness and beauty is a palpable reality."

Guyett paid tribute to those who died serving their country in a pair of Memorial Day ceremonies, first at Pinecrest Cemetery and then again at Lakeview Cemetery. In all, more than 150 people turned out for the twin ceremonies as the community gathered to honor them.

A Post Falls High School graduate, Guyett served as a gunnery sergeant in the First Marine Division, leading his battalion in peace and wartime. He would serve as the chief instructor and operations chief for the mobilization training battalion at Camp Pendleton where he was responsible for assignment training, performance and readiness of marine instructors.

He recalled training in the California deserts, of learning how to be ready for when the waiting turned to a time for action. He remembers that, as a 20-year-old lance corporal living in the barracks and watching planes crash into the Twin Towers in New York City. 

"I knew that the United States of America was attacked and the liberty and love we all took for granted was infringed," he told the crowd.

He ended up in Iraq, fighting for freedom and liberty and serving and protecting his brothers in arms. But Memorial Day isn't about people like himself, who fought and came home to tell stories. It is about those who fought and gave their lives, people like Air Force Captain David I. Lyon who was killed in December 2013 in Kabul, Afghanistan when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle.

"He and his wife and family knew full well the risks involved in his service, and yet he was willing to make and then made the ultimate sacrifice to demonstrate great love and give freedom to his fellow troops and the entire nation," Guyett said of the Sandpoint man.

People who serve are driven by the desire to ensure the freedoms and love enjoyed in America are nourished and protected.

"I believe it was better said by the Founding Fathers of our nation," Guyett said. "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Fighting dragons and evil men to establish, protect and provide liberty to our fellow man, woman and child, is intrinsic to our story, and it is because we are part of His great story."

Throughout the nation, there are ordinary men and women who display extraordinary courage, "making the ultimate sacrifice to give us life, liberty and the opportunity to pursue happiness." Men like Lyon and Master Sgt. William B. Hunt, who on his third tour in Vietnam, ordered the helicopter he was in to divert into a "hot zone" to save fellow soldiers. Men like Michael Probst, killed while working to save his fellow Marines in Falluja, Iraq; or Cpl. Charles Gilliland, who was killed providing cover to his unit in the Korean War in April 1951.

"The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him," Guyett said. "But don't be fooled. There is evil. It's still prowling around trying to devour whomever it may, whether external or internal. Evils like deception, manipulation, violence, abuse, coercion, greed, envy, lust and the fear of men seem to be more popular today than ever. Here, but this Memorial Day, we could choose to see it with different eyes. We can view it with the courage of those we are choosing to memorialize."

Guyett urged those at both the Pinecrest and Lakeview tributes to not just remember those who died in service to the United States but to gain inspiration from their actions.

"We can defeat the enemy," he added. "We may not magically change into a dress blue uniform, but you will preserve life and liberty. That is why today … we choose to remember and memorialize the warriors who stood and fought even in the face of great fear."

As Guyett finished, Marine Corps League members quietly read the names of those from the detachment. With each name, a small brass bell was rung in tribute.

In welcoming roughly 80 people to the Pinecrest Cemetery tribute and another 50-60 to a second tribute at Lakeview Cemetery, Marine Corps League members paid tribute to those who died serving their country.

"This day is set aside to remember those who lost their lives in defense of our country," chaplain Mike Trenholm told those gathered. "They did it in the deepest jungles and the expansive deserts of the world. They were shot out of the sky and they lay beneath the world's oceans."

They were young, and they were "old men" of over 30. But the sacrifice of each paid for the freedoms and rights all in the United States enjoy today.

"Today we honor and remember our military servicemen and women who have made the ultimate sacrifice," MCL Commandant Burt Quick said. "These men and women chose to fight for our country so that we can enjoy the freedom that we have today. That choice often presents a challenging path. It is the path of a true hero. Today is meant to honor and remember our heroes and family members who took that path to protect our freedom."

    Dennis Wilson rings a bell to honor those who gave their lives in service to the country. More than 150 people attended a pair of Memorial Day tributes at Pinecrest and Lakeview cemeteries Monday.
  

    Members of the Marine Corps League stand at attention at a Memorial Day tribute Monday.