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Memorial Day program to feature familiar face |
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Written by Publisher
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Friday, 22 May 2009 |
Photo by Ted Lutz
Ken Holmes, a former U.S. Army staff sergeant and a 1966 graduate of Kane Area High School, will speak Monday at the annual Memorial Day program at Evergreen Park in Kane. The program follows the Memorial Day parade, which is slated to begin at 9:30 a.m. Monday.
By Ted Lutz
Republican Staff
There’ll be a familiar face at the podium for the annual Memorial Day program in Kane.
Ken Holmes, who has been a jovial clerk at the window at the Kane Post Office for 21 years, will deliver the Memorial Day address Monday at Evergreen Park.
The program will begin immediately following the parade, which starts at 9:30 a.m. The parade forms on Wetmore Avenue and proceeds south on Fraley Street through the Uptown Business District. The parade ends at the Evergreen Park memorial area at Fraley and Chestnut and Birch streets.
“Memorial Day to me reflects all the sacrifices made to keep our freedoms,” Holmes said in discussing his selection as this year’s Memorial Day speaker in Kane. “America’s worth fighting for to keep what we have.
“I think Memorial Day means more to our veterans because they can identify with the sacrifices people have made for our country.
“Unfortunately, some people take what Americans have for granted and only look at Memorial Day as just a day off from work.”
Holmes is a two-time commander of American Legion Post 250 in Kane. He now is a member of American Legion Post 454 in Ludlow. He also will take part in the Memorial Day service Monday at the Gibbs Hill Cemetery in Ludlow.
Holmes is known for his smiles and wit as he waits on customers at the window at the Kane Post Office. But he admits that he becomes “very emotional” when it comes to discussing the meaning of Memorial Day.
“I’m a very patriotic person,” Holmes said.
Holmes calls himself an “Army brat” because his father, Gerald served in the military until his retirement.
Holmes graduated from Kane High School in 1966. While in high school, he was a member of the rifle team and played drums with the marching band.
Drafted into the Army in 1968, Holmes was a member of an infantry unit that was preparing to go to fight in Vietnam. Instead, the unit was deployed in Germany during a border conflict between Czechoslovakia and Russia.
During his two-year deployment, Holmes said he never shot “anything other than a wild boar.”
After his discharge from the Army in 1970, Holmes worked at the former Stackpole plant in Kane.
“I couldn’t see myself working in a factory all my life,” Holmes said in explaining why he left Stackpole to re-enlist with the Army. He was deployed in Germany and Korea and at bases in the U.S. He knows the exact length of his total military service: “16 years, seven months and nine days.”
He attained the rank of staff sergeant before he was medically discharged in 1984 after injuring his back on a recruitment trip.
During his military career, Holmes earned several medals and was named as his unit’s “Soldier-of-the-Year” while stationed in Germany in 1969.
After his military service, Holmes worked with the Department of Human Services in Warren County and served as a bartender at the Kane Moose Club.
Holmes, a member of the Kane Elks Lodge, has been a “window distribution clerk” at the Kane Post Office since 1988.
Holmes, who resides at 306 Walnut St. in Kane, is a life member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), the American Legion and the Disabled American Veterans (DAV). He is a two-time commander of the Bi-County American Legion organization for McKean and Cameron counties. He was instrumental in the placement of the Legion veterans memorial outside the McKean County Courthouse in Smethport.
Holmes participated in the Memorial Day program as a youth. His father, a retired sergeant major, was scheduled to present “General Logan’s Order No. 11,” which is included in many Memorial Day programs. Because his father was hospitalized, Holmes took over and recited the patriotic message.
The Memorial Day parade Monday will form at 9 a.m. on Wetmore Avenue.
Jim Gibson of the Kane American Legion is the parade chairman.
The parade will include the Kane High School Marching Band, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, several other groups and trucks from the Kane Volunteer Fire Department.
Mayor Doug Caldwell will serve as the master-of-ceremonies for the Memorial Day program at Evergreen Park. The Rev. Phillip Pinczewski, pastor of St. Callistus Catholic Church in Kane, will give the invocation.
Eagle Scout Jared Ishman will present the Scout message.
Russ Counts, commander of the Kane VFW, and Gerald Ackley, commander of the Kane American Legion, will place wreaths in the memorial area at Evergreen Park.
The marching band will play patriotic selections. Taps will be sounded.
Bring lawn chairs to sit and watch the parade and the Memorial Day program at the park.
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Last Updated ( Friday, 12 June 2009 )
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