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Albany observes Memorial Day

• Albany veterans celebrate the true meaning of Memorial Day, a time to remember America's fallen war heroes.

Barbara Rivera Holmes

ALBANY — Nick Nicholson asks himself daily why, given the many opportunities he had to go, he’s still here. By now he figures it was out of his hands.

“I had people killed within five feet of me and there is not a scratch on me,” said the 67-year-old, who fought in the Vietnam War as a member of the United States Marine Corps. “The Lord was protecting me. God had plans for me to do something.”

Nicholson, a member of American Legion Post 30, was one of millions of Americans who Monday — Memorial Day — honored the nation’s fallen heroes.

“I lost a lot of men over there,” said Nicholson, the post’s 2006-07 commander and a member of numerous veteran’s organizations (he has the hats to prove it). “I think about them all the time.”

At Post 30, veterans and auxiliary units from most, if not all, of the conflicts from World War II through Operation Iraqi Freedom were represented.

Veterans Monday urged Americans to remember that Memorial Day isn’t about cookouts and pool parties and a day off from work.

Rather, it was created to “honor the millions of men and women who gave up their lives in the armed services,” said Pat O’Leary, guest speaker at Post 30’s sunrise flag raising and breakfast.

Memorial Day began after the Civil War, when supporters of the Union and supporters of the Confederacy would take time to remember those who had died in conflict. The day later became known as Decoration Day, but would not be recognized by Congress as “Memorial Day,” now celebrated on the last Monday of May, until 1967.

At American Legion Post 512, a handful of ladies were dressed in their Sunday best and by 7 a.m. had decorated the post’s main hall in red, white and blue and perfectly positioning tiny American flags on tables. Behind the podium hung a POW-MIA banner and the names of seven men, including Willie Pitts. The post sits off Willie Pitts Jr. Road.

“We volunteer our time to the legion to keep honoring those that have fought wars so we can make this contribution,” said Jean Robinson. “They sacrificed their lives for people that did not appreciate them, as well as for those that did appreciate them.”

Nicholson may be appreciated today, but the story of his youth was rather different.

“I was spit on at the airport,” he said of his homecoming reception.

Every Memorial Day, as a way to pay homage to the fallen and ensure their marks on the nation and the world aren’t forgotten, Nicholson and his Post 30 comrades place a wreath at the eternal flame in downtown Albany and raise a new flag at the Veteran Park’s Amphitheater. They then travel to Riverside Cemetery to honor those who died during the Spanish-American War.

“This is the time that our nation pauses to honor ... (those) who make our nation the best,” said U.S. Rep. Sanford D. Bishop Jr., who spoke to Post 30. “The debt that is owed to those who paid the ultimate price can never be repaid in full.”

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