“Celebrate their lives. Tell their stories,” urged Master Gunnery Sergeant Brent Piel during the annual Red Bud Memorial Day program on May 31.
Piel, who has a long military career spanning many locations and having received many distinguished awards, started his speech by discussing the differences in Veterans Day, Armed Services Day and Memorial Day.
He added while the meaning of Memorial Day is often lost in a flurry of sales by stores, he wanted to explain why Memorial Day was important to him.
Piel noted that when he was younger, he was given a camera and told to take pictures of everything. This included friends he made during his time in the military. In fact, he noted that he still keeps some of those pictures in his wallet today.
For more from the Memorial Day service, please see this week’s print edition.