Columbia Post 97 Honor Guard makes the Memorial Day rounds

PATEROS – On Memorial Day, Monday, May 28, nearly 50 flags decorated the drive leading to the Pateros Cemetery with its commanding view overlooking the confluence of the Methow and Columbia rivers.
Buried there among other veterans is James W. Meadows, who served in World War I, and Vern E. McAlvey whose memorial stone described Mac as “a cowboy at heart.”
At 9 a.m. sharp, American Legion Area Three Commander Denny Pittman gave the order for the Columbia Post 97 Honor Guard to form up for the first of six ceremonies that would take place in as many sites concluding at post headquarters in Brewster at noon. It’s a ritual the aging Legion members perform every Memorial Day from Pateros to Packwood and Fort Okanogan to Locust Grove cemeteries. At each the colors are presented, a citation recited, a wreath dedicated, a three-round volley fired, and taps played before the small group moves on to its next appointed round.
At 9:30 a.m. a small caravan of vehicles stopped at mid-point on Brewster’s Bridge Street Bridge - closed temporarily for the occasion by Brewster Police and State Patrol – where Pittman dropped a wreath from the east side railing into the brown, roiling waters of the Columbia River to honor Navy and Coast Guard dead. As the wreath passed beneath the bridge, circular whirlpools of water seemed to mimic the shape of the floating memorial as they escorted it swiftly downstream.
An eight-mile drive up Central Ferry Canyon Road led to the access to Packwood Cemetery on Dyer Hill where memorials can be found amid the purple lupine, balsamroots and bitterbrush, many shaded by mature bull pines.
Ernest Shenyer, who served in the U.S. Navy, is buried there; so is World War II Marine Marion A. Hogan. Not far away is Patrick M. Fitzgerald who served with the Air Force in Vietnam; Wayne Robert Dorchuck, U.S. Army, Korea, and Eugene Edward Housden who saw action in WWII with the U.S. Army. The service for those and other Packwood vets began at 10 a.m. and was witnessed by a small crowd of friends and relatives gathered to pay their respects.
It’s a shade more than 17 miles from Packwood to the Fort Okanogan Memorial Cemetery north of Monse on U.S. 97, so the ceremony commenced there at 11 a.m. That’s where Army veteran John G. Cook, who served in Korea, is buried, not far from another Korean War veteran, Army Sgt. Donald L. Woodward, whose memorial includes a cross fashioned from horseshoes. A half-dozen visitors watched the service as a light south breeze blew under a near-cloudless sky.
The largest crowd of the morning waited at Locust Grove Cemetery in Brewster, resting place of U.S. Army paratrooper Dick R. Boesel, and Karl Goehry, forever 20 years old. Francis Eugene Stevens, who served with the Army Air Forces in WWII can also be found there.
The flag-lined drives and exquisitely manicured grounds served as fitting final venue where dozens gathered to watch Pittman place a wreath at the base of the half-mast flag and then raise the colors to the top of the pole. Following handshakes and some hugs, the Honor guard convened at post headquarters where, at noon, an arrangement of flowers was placed before the service colors at Legion Park to a concluding volley and taps.
Inside the legion hall a framed reminder hanging among other memorabilia reads:
 L. Cpl. Marvin E. Galbraith
KIA 03-27-68 USMC
Vietnam
“Lest we forget”