Solemn Ceremonies in Manchester and Essex Commemorate Memorial Day

The familiar quote by Korean War veteran Howard William Osterkamp echoed on Memorial Day as residents in Manchester and Essex honored fallen service members in solemn, heartfelt ceremonies this year.

In Manchester, a large crowd gathered at the Amaral Bailey American Legion Post 113 waterfront memorial early Monday morning.  The weather—a welcome break from an unseasonably cold and wet spring—was simply perfect.  The 9 a.m. service was led by Legion Chaplain Bruce Heisey, Auxiliary President Michele Daley, Legion Commander Alan Kirker, and the Legion Auxiliary Chaplain Cheryl Lamphear.  With the inner harbor as a backdrop, wreaths and flowers were solemnly dropped into the water in tribute to those lost at sea.

The community then moved to assemble at the Veteran Honor Roll in front of Manchester Town Hall, where veterans, Legion officers, town officials, Scouts, and the Manchester Essex Regional High School Band joined together before marching in a parade to Rosedale Cemetery for the main service. 

There, before the reading of Flanders Field, the Rev. Katherine Schofield of First Parish Congregational Church reflected on the true meaning of Memorial Day, calling it a reminder of the extraordinary sacrifice made by those who served.  Only the sacrifices that come in war, she said, could remind us that the willingness of some to give their lives so that others might live never fails to evoke in us a sense of wonder and mystery.

In Essex, that idea of sacrifice was about neighbors.  The Memorial Day service at Memorial Park behind Town Hall was led, as it is every year, by Chief Warrant Officer David Oliver, who remembered two Essex men who died in the Vietnam War.  He invoked the name of U.S. Marine Corps Private First-Class Robert Everett Moore, a 1966 Gloucester High School graduate, enlisted in 1967 and was killed less than a month after deployment.  Then, he spoke of U.S. Army Specialist Paul Daryll Knowlton, who graduated in 1965 and lived in Essex with his parents, died in South Vietnam in 1968 at just 20 years old.

Oliver was visibly emotional as he spoke of Moore and Knowlton’s local lives and sacrifice, noting that 2025 marks 50 years since the end of the Vietnam War.

The ceremony also featured a powerful address by U.S. Army Major Morgan Jaffray, a trauma and combat care nurse who has served in Iraq and led medical evacuation missions from Germany.  Jaffray spoke of Memorial Day as both a solemn remembrance and a call to action, urging Americans to live lives worthy of the freedoms secured by the fallen.  She recounted experiences from war zones and military hospitals that revealed the resilience and sacrifice of those who serve. 

Her message was one of gratitude, unity, and civic responsibility—reminding those gathered that the legacy of the fallen is preserved not only through remembrance, but also through how we choose to live every day.

Lamphear of the Legion Auxiliary, which raises funds annually through poppy sales to honor veterans, encouraged the public to reflect locally.  She said we should keep Howard William Osterkamp’s quote in mind, reminding us that while all give some, others give, and sacrifice, all.

“When you are out and about downtown,” she said, “walk up to the American Legion's Post 113 Veterans Honor Roll.  Peruse the almost 1,000 names of the men and women who have served this country from World War I to 2019 from Manchester-by-the-Sea.”