Across the region, the fallen are honored

Throughout the region yesterday, old soldiers pulled on lovingly preserved uniforms and appeared in parades as they do each May, serving as living representatives of dead comrades.

The country's toughest people conduct the most moving ceremonies, as though war and sentiment go hand in hand.

From large parades attracting thousands - such as one in Media - to smaller gatherings in places like Lumberton, people took time away from hitting the malls and grilling meats to contemplate larger things: freedom, battle, sacrifice.

"I am proud of this country," said Henry Moore, 88, one of the Tuskegee Airmen, the African American Army Air Corps flier squadron that fought with distinction despite segregation during World War II. He was part of the Media parade that rolled down State Street to thunderous drums and martial music under endlessly bright skies.

"When I joined the Airmen, I thought that one day we would live up to our ideal as a country," said Moore, a former staff sergeant. "These days, after electing Barack Obama president, we are getting closer to that ideal."

Never far from people's minds were the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, making ceremonies all the more poignant.

"I've got two sons on active duty," said Vietnam War veteran George Brosnan, 62, a member of the Media Veterans of Foreign Wars, standing in uniform beneath a six-story flagpole with the Stars and Stripes flapping above.

"I put one boy on a plane to Afghanistan yesterday, his third tour of duty," Brosnan said. "This is a tough year, with extra worry. Both my boys are gone, and I know what they're facing, since I've been there and done that."

The Media ceremonies had an added element of sadness as people remembered neighbor and Phillies announcer Harry Kalas, a veteran and staple of the local parade who died last month.

But Memorial Day is also an opportunity to gather a community to honor and celebrate those who have served. And a better venue could hardly be picked than Lumberton, home to what organizers say is the oldest continuously running Memorial Day parade in New Jersey. The first was in 1885.

Marching bands, civic groups, and schoolchildren donned hometown pride and paraded down Lumberton's quaint Main Street. Members of the Rancocas Valley boys' lacrosse team threw candy at smiling folks along the parade route, many of them holding little American flags.

Residents Ed and Patty Borm said they had been coming to the parade for nearly 20 years. The first time, they were a young couple looking to buy a house.

"We saw this parade, and I said, 'What a cute town. I want to live here,' " recalled Patty Borm, a medical secretary.

Farther down Main Street, Kevin and Elizabeth Cronin and daughter Kelsey, 10, were watching the parade and getting better acquainted with their new hometown.

A member of the Coast Guard recently stationed at Fort Dix, Kevin Cronin said the family moved to Lumberton just a week ago from Camp Lejeune, N.C. So far, they were liking Lumberton just fine.

Elizabeth Cronin said they were even getting used to the Jersey drivers.

"Everybody warned us they drive wicked fast," she said, grinning, "but they're really nice people."

And can they ever throw a party. Case in point: the yard of the Moorer residence on Main Street, where scores of family and friends were enjoying barbecue, a beer or two, and one another's company.

It all started Memorial Day 1986, the day Geary Moorer, his wife, and their four daughters moved in. They brought some kegs with them.

"It actually started with passing beer out to the people on the street and water to the people in the parade . . . it just ballooned," said Moorer, an elevator mechanic who grew up in Lumberton and returned.

Yesterday, Moorer was expecting his parade route tradition to draw about 100 guests.

"Hopefully, every year it gets bigger," Moorer said.