Honoring those who gave their all

The Island’s Memorial Day ceremony moved indoors due to heavy rain during the country’s 250th founding anniversary. But veterans from around Martha’s Vineyard said the honoring of their fallen comrades was not diminished. 

The Island community gathered in the new gymnasium of the Tisbury School on Monday before heading over to the American Legion Post 257 for food and refreshments. 

Wreaths that are traditionally placed on monuments in the Oak Grove Cemetery were not laid to protect the gymnasium’s new floors, and no parade was held, but organizers and veterans alike said the message of remembrance remained unfettered. 

“Jo Ann [Murphy] did a magnificent job bringing something that was outside inside the gym, and making it so personal,” Bob Tankard, Martha’s Vineyard Community Services veterans outreach coordinator, said. ”It still honors the fallen vets that we honor. Some of them are friends, and our family members …
and that was the most amazing thing to see; how many spectators came when they could have stayed home.”

At the ceremony, Jo Ann Murphy, American Legion Post 257 commander, led the honoring and welcomed the crowd. Natalie Wood sang the National Anthem and Stephen Harding, Tisbury Fire Department chaplain and rector of Grace Church led a prayer.

The Girl and Boy Scouts directed the crowd in the pledge of allegiance, and new Tisbury Select Board member Connie Alexander reads the Memorial Day Proclamation.

George Pimentel, who served in the U.S. Army for almost seven years as a captain and airborne ranger and is now the director of veterans services for Dukes County, was the guest speaker. 

“We are standing on special and sacred ground with a long memory,” Pimentel said in his speech. “The people of this Island, the Wampanoags, the families who came later, the fishermen, farmers, tradesmen, and many more who built our towns, have been sending their sons and daughters to war for centuries.” 

Pimentel also highlighted that it was New England sailors and Minutemen who defended the harbors and shipping lanes against the British navy, which sought to impose blockades to strangle colonial trade and supplies, at a time when America was a fragile, burgeoning nation fighting for independence in the Revolutionary War. 

“It was our grandfathers, grandmothers and great-grandparents, who held the home front through two world wars, who rationed, worked hard and waited, and then grieved,” said Pimentel at the podium. “That tradition of showing up, of believing that freedom is not free, and that our families have stood together for the right, which runs through this region like bedrock. It runs deep through this Island we call home.”

Veterans at the Memorial Day ceremony shared accounts of their past service. Walter Burke, a full-time Island resident for 20 years, recalled serving aboard the USS Forrestal, a supercarrier. Burke said just days aboard the ship, a 1967 Vietnam tour was cut short when a catastrophic explosion killed 134 sailors in a non-combat incident. 

“We went over to Vietnam to serve a nine-month tour,” said Burke. “But on the fifth day, we had major explosions on the ship.”

Burke also said that despite the last-minute accommodations and lack of a parade, Memorial Day wasn’t diminished since the focus of the holiday is to remember those that have fallen in the line of duty. 

“The main thing is that we pause and remember those who are no longer with us, who did give their all,” said Burke.

Carl Malmquist, who served in the Army under President Lyndon B. Johnson, said he was thankful to everyone who showed up to the ceremony. 

“I’m glad. People always seem to thank you for being a part of the Army,” said Malmquist.  

Other local veterans in attendance include Tommy Morrison, who has lived on Martha’s for 26 years and spent 20 years in the Army infantry, and Charles Smith, a 70-year-old Edgartown resident, a Marine Corps veteran who served as a senior captain in the Edgartown Fire Department for almost 40 years.

“I think it’s great, the amount of people who showed up today. They keep the tradition going, and it means a lot to veterans,” said Smith. 

Murphy, the event organizer, said she had hoped for a parade but remembering those who have fallen is the bottom line. 

“The whole point is to remember all of our fallen,” said Murphy. 

Tankard, who enlisted in 1964 during the Vietnam War and served at the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), said the responsibilities he took on while in service transformed him from a boy to a man. 

“There were four military officers when I was in Korea,” said Tankard.
”They told me, ‘You get out of here, you go back home, go to school, and go back to your community and serve,’ and that’s exactly what I did. It was like I could hear them today.” 

Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School students also contributed to the day’s honoring, hosting their third annual fundraiser at the Portuguese-American (P.A.) Club to support affordable housing for moderate-income veterans. Led by Matt Macmillan, a junior football and hockey player at MVRHS, the project was passed down from Cal Darcy, a 2024 MVRHS graduate, and Harrison Lazarus, a current senior at MVRHS, and has raised roughly $28,000 over the past two years in silent auctions, donations, and T-shirt sales. All proceeds are dedicated to the Island Housing Trust’s Bellevue Veteran Housing Project, a neighborhood dedicated to veterans in Oak Bluffs. 

“The goal of the project is to raise money for units specifically for veterans,” said Macmillan. “We want to help the veterans here because that community specifically has had a hard time coming and integrating back into normal life.”