Gloucester Mayor adds Vietnam Memorial back into Memorial Day Parade?

Update: Mayor adds Vietnam ceremony to end of parade
By Richard Gaines
Staff Writer
May 22, 2012

The Vietnam Memorial was restored today to its traditional place at the end of the city's official Memorial Day ceremonies.

Mayor Carolyn Kirk today expanded the official Memorial Day Parade to once again include the Vietnam Memorial outside Gloucester High School, which sent 11 of its own to be lost in the lost war that the U.S. entered 50 years ago.

The decision to extend the parade to the memorial reverses a decision to exclude the Vietnam Memorial ceremony from the official agenda.

The initial change had been outlined Friday and over the weekend to perplexed and widespread opposition.

Many in the community said they could not understand the decision to essentially eliminate the Vietnam War ceremony from the official agenda for the Memorial Day, especially in a year that marks the nation's decision 50 years ago to become in a war that the nation would ultimately lose, bringing bitterness and lingering pain, especially among the veterans who served.

Kirk had said that the decision was based on a desire to produce a single unified memorial ceremony at the World War II Memorial off Stacy Boulevard. In a letter to Mark Nestor, the organizer of the Vietnam War Memorial ceremony, Kirk apologized "for not overcoming the logistical challenge of incorporating the Vietnam Memorial into the parade salute for this year. I should have caught this sooner, and we plan to do everything we can to properly honor the fallen sons of Gloucester."

Nestor, a local attorney and a helicopter pilot in Vietnam, said this morning, "I congratulate the mayor."
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