The 2024 Civil War Memorial Ceremony in Fall River, Massachusetts, held on May 17, 2024, honored Civil War heroes. The event commenced with an opening prayer by Father Rob Nich, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance led by Mary Fonseca School students Ilana and Anthony. Evan Massud sang the National Anthem, accompanied by the Durfee band under the direction of Julia. A flag ceremony was conducted by flag officer Victor Faras and a former VSO, emphasizing respect for the flag. Mayor Paul Coogan and Veteran Service Officer Michelle Hamilton delivered remarks, highlighting the Civil War's significance as the only war fought on U.S. soil. State Representatives Alan Sylvia and Carol Fiola also spoke, stressing the importance of learning from history to prevent future conflicts and acknowledging the sacrifice of approximately 700,000 lives during the war. Councilor Pereira was recognized for organizing the event. The ceremony included the placement of a wreath, and the Mary Fonseca School, represented by Vice Principal Miss Buston, received a flag from Congressman Jake Auchincloss and a certificate of appreciation from the entire city council for their participation. The event concluded with a performance of "God Bless America" by elementary students, a closing prayer by Father Rob, Taps played by the Fall River Vietnam veterans, a dove release, and a medley of military songs by the band.
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welcome to the memorial service we have every year for the civil war heroes Civil War was one of the bloodiest battles in the United States about 620 people died so that we could have our freedom so at this time I'd like to call Father Rob nich to give us the opening prayer let us pray Lord God who care and guidance brought our ancestors to this great land and led them through faith courage and
0:39self-sacrifice to build the foundation of a great Democratic Nation dedicated to Liberty and human rights may we be faithful stewards of the Heritage that has been entrusted to us reverently on this day where we honor and remember those who fought and died in the Civil War for the rights of all we pay our tribute of respect to the memory of those who gave their lives in service of
1:07our country we pray that the souls of these our heroic dead may have found perfect rest and received a Crown of unfading Life we humbly acknowledge our debt to them and ask for the strength to go on toward the ideals for which they fought and died as they gave themselves to advance the ideal of world peace Justice and the equality of all may they Inspire our continued efforts towards
1:33this same end this we ask in your holy name amen amen if I could have Ilana and Anthony come on up here and they are going to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance and they are both students of the Mary fansa School right hand on but say it really loud I P alance to the flag of the United States of America and to theic which it stands one nation under God
2:13indivisual with liberty and justice for all thank you very much great job nice love voices now I'd like to introduce you to Evan massud who will be singing the National Anthem accompanied by the dery band Led by
2:48Julia oh can you see by the dawn light what so proudly we hate at the Twilight last who broughts and bright stars through the perilous fight for the ramp parts we watched were so gallantly streaming and the rockets red glare the bombs bursting in air gave proof through the night that our flag was still there oh say does that Star Spangled Banner yet W or the land of the free and the home of the brave
4:01very good thank you than you thank you you're welcome you can have a seat everybody um at this time I messed up I would like to present colors
4:27please you can have a seat right came up Victor faras our flag officer along with our former vso will assist in the flag ceremony and just for all of you to know when we take down an Old Flag that's ripped or torn it has to be folded in a very special way and that's what they're doing right now they're folding the flag because we all have have a lot of
5:00respect for our flag just like all the boys and girls from the school you've all come with flags and you're being very respectful you're holding them High um and you know you're not poking your friend with them you are respecting the flag and that is incredible I'm so proud of the boys and girls from fonsica school they have done an amazing job
5:49and now the new flag will go up on the pole and see how that flag came in it was folded the same way again showing respect to our flag B
6:30see how someone holds the flag you never let the flag touch the
6:55ground beautiful great job now i' like to introduce you to the mayor of the city of Fall River The Honorable Paul Coogan for a welcoming
7:12remarks I wantan to I want to first of all before we ATT anything I want to thank fansa elementary school and all the kids there they're all uh they're all friends of mine and it's great to see all you guys uh here today we appreciate you coming um Memorial Day is coming quickly May is when we start all of our celebrations of veterans although in Fall River they're celebrated 365
7:33days a year we're glad that the kids are getting exposure to these kind of events this one honors the Civil War which was the only War fought on American soil uh it it had a big impact in the history of our country and I'm not going to spoil it for you because I'm hoping that you guys get to learn about it in your history classes going forward and understand what's going on but we are so
7:55pleased to honor our veterans whether they're from the Civil War or any of the war was that made this country what it is today and I really do want to thank fansa for coming out thank you guys next we have Michelle Hamilton who was our veteran service officer to give some words of her own Michelle mayor Cogan's booing me I still love Fall River mayor cougan that's all there is to it good morning
8:32everybody it's absolutely wonderful to be here with you today as we recognize our fallen it's truly fitting that we meet here at the Civil War grave site to commemorate our fallen brothers and sisters who risked everything for America's Freedom the Civil War was unique in American history it was the only fight on our own land we were it was was an experience here in our own country where principled men and
9:03women fought and died we honor and commemorate them on Memorial Day which part of your history lesson was actually known as decoration day as most of you know every military member swears to defend the Constitution of the United States as well as to put their life on the line for freedom and while they all acknowledge the risks most never consider themselves as those to fall in war and it is that Fearless
9:34attitude and sole purpose and single mission to protect those behind and beside them that makes them so special to us those who would and did make the ultimate sacrifice for their families friends brothers and sisters as we consider today moving into the memorial season let us remember reflect and mourn their loss and let let us be the kind of Americans that they would be proud to of us thank you very much thank you
10:10Michelle and we always have two of our state representatives who never miss coming to this event that was started out by Ray Mitchell and Eric Pand several years ago when they were both on the council so I am thankful that they always show for our veterans and for so many many other things we have wonderful representation so next I'd like to call AB upon a veteran himself representative Alan Sylvia good morning
10:45everyone good morning FICA school I'm so happy you know for so many years we've been coming here and of course we always have a a great dery High School band which plays excellently thank you so much but this is the first time in all these years that I've seen so many students and it is so important it is so important for the people who are watching who watch this on cable
11:13news and for all of us here today because history history is so important and today that's actually what we're doing we're one of the only communities that really honors civil war Civil War Heroes most communities just group them all together and have a Memorial Day for celebrating all veterans uh in all wars but mayor as May mayor Coogan said or Michelle Hamilton mentioned this is the
11:42only war that was fought on our land and it was over 700,000 men who died during the Civil War 2% of the population now that was in 1861 to 18 66 can you imagine that's a long time ago it's not that long ago though but why it's so important to know our American history is so that we don't repeat the same mistakes and if you ask many people we
12:15were divided then in 1861 it was over an issue called slavery and if you look at what's going on today in the world we're divided again over policies and principles we have to be very careful that we don't repeat our the same mistakes but many of these grave sites back here who fought in the Civil War they were 15 years old 14 years old 17 years old never really got to live a life they
12:50were someone's daughter and son so let us never forget never never forget our our veterans and again thank you all for being here thank you representative Sylvia next we have our favorite uh female state representative from our area representative Carol Fiola you didn't say senior you said female I like that thank you um what a great beautiful day it always seems like it's a beautiful day here when we have
13:32this ceremony um so wonderful to see all of you fonsica faces here um it's hard to imagine War we haven't lived it you haven't lived it and to think that a war that we're recognizing today the veterans from who gave their lives that ended about 160 years ago and as rep syvia said the idea of Us coming together and making sure that you understand what this is about is
14:08just like he said to ensure each one of us that we live our lives to make sure these things don't happen again I just came back from Poland a country that my family relatives came from but it sits on the Ukraine border where there is currently a a war with Russia and to talk to the people there it's hard for us to imagine because nothing's happening in our soil but over in Poland there's 10,000 of our
14:47American soldiers stationed there praying that they never have to be called to action the people over there in Poland are close to war and it's on their minds every day and again we don't think like that because those things happen somewhere else but today we want to remind you that our veterans who are serving all over the world that our United States men and women who serve in the armed
15:23forces maybe you have relatives do any of you have relatives that serve in the army or Navy or Air Force or Marines look some of you are raising your hands make sure you go home today and when you see that relative tell them thank you when you see them because they are there potentially sacrificing their time and potentially their lives for you and us and so today I want to thank councelor Pereira for
15:57organizing this event and most importantly thank you for being here because this is the beginning of your next stage of your life to understand these kind of things some of you may very well enlist and serve in our armed forces and for that we would be forever grateful to you but today we celebrate and honor more than celebrate we honor the lives of the seven almost 700,000 men and women who
16:25died on United States soil for the free freedoms today that we live by and enjoy and so thank you for being here hopefully you'll continue to learn more about the Civil War and all the wars that came after that and maybe you'll take a field trip down to our Bicentennial Veterans Park and see all the monuments that are built and dedicated to all the different Wars that were for and more importantly the people who made
17:01the ultimate sacrifice and many from Fall River so thank you for being here thank you councelor Pereira for uh honoring this day thank you okay next on our agenda is the placement of the wreath and I would like
17:49at this time I'd like to have Miss buston the vice principal of the fonsa school come up we always get a flag from Congressman Jake aen Claus he sends us a flag so this year the flag that we have we are giving to the fonsica school for you to display in your school as a thank you for having all of your students come and also a citation on behalf of the entire city council a
18:27certificate of appreciation um for the city of Far River veteran service office recognizes and appreciates the students and the staff of the Mary El fonsa Elementary School for your participation in the 2024 Civil War Monument ceremony so you can bring this and all of the children have received um a card from us a little citation also thanking them for coming today and being here with us and I know it's
19:01not easy to get this many students up from school walking so miss buson we thank you very much um in closing I would like to thank not only the fonsica school and their tremendous showing today but also to our elected officials who take time to be here to the teachers of the f took a school God bless you all you are educating the future of our community and we thank you for that for the dery
19:39band they are incredible and I'm so happy that their conductor went to the same College my granddaughter's at I couldn't pick a better alumni for my granddaughter than Julie and you are fabulous fabulous and I would be remiss and not thanking the cemetery Department Chris Martin I don't know where you are he's probably working um but for making sure that uh this is all taken care of
20:12our Vietnam veterans honor God and so many others I hate to name people one at a time because then you forget somebody and it's not good um so I do want to thank them all now in um closing we have God Bless America will be sung by our elementary school students who have practiced this for a long time do you need my help you need to come up come on
20:42up we have our Music Teacher who's going to Le the way and the dery band will accompany them no they won't oh okay they're too hard to accompany okay for
21:33God bless Amer stand
22:19God Bless America iide
22:39the to the godess
22:54America America
23:11hey great job that was amazing you knew all the words and Sayang that so fast good for you what yep I'd also like to take the time to offer uh to introduce uh Moren Flanigan who's here from representative rodri's office uh now we're gonna have everybody needs to be quiet because father Rob is going to do the closing prayer and we all have to be really quiet when father Rob speaks because that's the
23:53rules that was beautiful very well sung thank you let us pray on this day we remember and honor those who give their lives in service of our country during the Civil War through their sacrifice they have taught us the meaning of true patriotism and that Devotion to Country which rises above Creed color and class on this day we bring to mind the love and the self-sacrifice which was in the hearts
24:22of those who gave their lives in service of our country who now rest in peace that we might live in a free and Unchained Nation we give thanks for the lessons of this day and rededicate ourselves to the freedom justice equality and peace for which they fought and died to all the heroic dead we honor this day Grant the light of your presence and may the good work done in
24:49them be continued by us this we ask in your holy name amen amen we'll have Taps will be played now by the Vietnam veterans of Fall River
25:36oh I see him now
26:08thank you and the doves were released by doves bipola part of the Vietnam veterans of Fall River so we thank you for that and thank you for the assistance of the faculty from fonsa school uh and if the they yep go ahead they're going to do a a medle of all of the military songs so that's the conclusion of our ceremony thank you all for coming very appreciated a