Ret. Brigadier Gen. Pete Costilow grasped his notes in 40-mph winds Monday as he prepared to address residents during Memorial Day services at Mustang Cemetery.
He later spoke during an evening ceremony at Wild Horse Park.
As the military service flags whipped behind him, Costilow thanked everyone for coming to the cemetery to preserve the memory of the community's veterans. “I hope you can hear me with the wind,” he said.
Costilow, a 30-year veteran who served in Vietnam, first welcomed his fellow soldiers back home. He spoke of a couple clutching a black Prisoner of War — Missing in Action flag and told them many are still searching for their loved ones.
“Ten years ago this weekend, members of my unit from Vietnam met at Arlington Cemetery where we buried the remains of five soldiers from our unit who were lost Oct. 20, 1968,” he told them. “Never give up hope.”
Costilow reminded the crowd of Memorial Day's special history. The first Memorial Day was commemorated in 1866 to remember the Civil War dead. After World War I, its meaning was expanded to remember all of America's war dead and veterans who have died.
“These soldiers we honor today share a special heritage, a common bond with today's soldiers,” he said. “If you look into their lives, whether privates or generals, you would see practiced the same army values — loyalty, duty, respect, selfless service, honor, integrity and personal courage. These were ordinary men and women who rose to meet seemingly impossible odds and did extraordinary things.”
To honor Mustang's veterans, the American Legion Post 353 color guard fired their rifles in a three-shot salute that rang over the cemetery and later during the ceremony at Wild Horse Park. Mustang High School's JROTC Bronco Battalion color guard helped post Old Glory at the cemetery, and a group of Oklahoma National Guardsmen retired the colors at Wild Horse Park.
The National Guard also brought some vehicles stationed at the Armed Forces Reserve Center in Mustang to the park for parents and children to tour. Martin Weaver, American Legion commander, said the veterans invited the National Guard and Army Reserve members assigned to Mustang to help them commemorate Memorial Day.
National Guard Chaplain Richard Dominic asked the crowd gathered at Wild Horse Park to remember soldiers who are deployed and to help support their families.
“Our freedoms embrace the ideals of service and sacrifice,” he said during his invocation. “The servicemen and women of the active Reserve and the National Guard embody these ideals. Even now they are all over this world, protecting those of us who enjoy the blessings of freedom from those who would seek to bring tyranny, slavery and all kinds of evil upon our society.”