‘We’ll never forget our heroes’

The CNMI Veterans Cemetery in Marpi was ground zero Monday for the observance of Memorial Day in the Commonwealth, with government officials led by Lt. Gov. Arnold I. Palacios, ranking military officers, and families of veterans giving honors to veterans of various conflicts.

Joint Region Marianas legal counsel Commander Harry W. Elliott IV, who was Monday’s keynote speaker, was joined at the ceremony by Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan (Ind-MP), House Speaker Blas Jonathan T. Attao, CNMI Military and Veterans Affairs executive director Stanley Iakopo, Sen. Vinnie F. Sablan (Ind-Saipan), Reps. Tina Sablan (Ind-Saipan), Luis John DLG Castro (R-Saipan), Joseph Leepan T. Guerrero (R-Saipan), and Edmund S. Villagomez, and Saipan Mayor David M. Apatang.

The Saipan Pacific Winds provided the musical backdrop to Monday’s Memorial Day commemoration, while the Marianas High School color guard did flag duties at the ceremony, joined by the Kagman High School Ayuyu Battalion. Officers from the Department of Public Safety provided a 21-gun salute, just before two U.S. Air Force planes made a flyby over the cemetery.

In his remarks, Palacios said: “Today, we are gathered here on this sacred ground to honor the lives and deeds of some of our country’s and our islands’ greatest heroes: the men and women who laid down their lives for freedom and who contributed so much to the greater good for us all.”

“To every family here today, our islands thank you and keep you in our prayers. We will never forget our heroes,” he added.

In his address, Elliott said the United States was founded on a simple but radical idea: that all humans are created equal, with inalienable rights.

“As a nation, we have struggled—often mightily—to fully realize this principle. Yet imperfect as we have been as a nation toward these goals through the years, with each young man or woman who dedicates their lives to the preservation of this ideal, we inch closer to the nation we aspire to become,” he said.

He told the story of Dawson Donale Brown, who is the grandfather of his friend and fellow lawyer. He said that Brown was part of the Marines that landed and helped liberate the island of Saipan from the Japanese during World War II. Private First Class Brown died less than three miles from the Veterans Cemetery.

Elliot said that his friend has asked him to collect a jar of sand from the shores of Garapan to serve as their family’s physical connection to the island.

Brown’s family has yet to visit the island where he gave up his life, Elliot said, but that jar of sand will forever serve as their connection to him and the future generations of their family.