Crowell, Reid, Gibbons honor troops at veterans cemetery service

FERNLEY " Service organizations, retired and active military personnel and politicians on Monday thanked the thousands of servicemen and women who sacrificed their lives for their country during a Memorial Day ceremony at the Northern Nevada Veterans Cemetery in Fernley.

Carson City Mayor Bob Crowell gave the keynote address, paying tribute to those who had served their country in war and to those who remained "to keep the home fires burning" in the United States.

Crowell, who was born in Tonopah, joined the Navy and served in Vietnam. He retired as a Navy captain.

"I knew it was important when my country called me to serve," Crowell said.

About 500 people attended the annual ceremony.

Crowell reflected on his return from Vietnam to the United States in the early 1970s and said it wasn't feasible to wear his uniform outside a military installation.

Times have changed.

"Today, the attitudes are different," he said. "We celebrate when our troops come home."

Crowell offered some sobering statistics of those who have fought in the country's wars. He said 657,708 men and women have died for their country and more than 1 million have been wounded. Furthermore, he said, only one veteran is still living from World War I.

"We never must forget the 78,000 missing veterans from World War II to now," he said.

Crowell said that, for many years when he visited Washington, D.C., he visited the Vietnam Wall. Now, he visits all the war memorials and thinks of all who served.

"Every name on the wall or headstone ... there's another person left behind," he said.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., the state's senior U.S. senator, said the ceremony honors many men and women who died while pursuing peace and maintaining the United States' safety.

"We remember those who have fought and fallen. We revere those who continue to sacrifice. We recommit ourselves to fulfilling our obligation to those who volunteer," Reid said. "There are 385 Americans who last Memorial Day honored the fallen as they fought in Iraq and Afghanistan, but who this year are counted among them. We think of them " of the nearly 5,000 who have given their lives in these two wars " and the nearly 5,000 who forever lie here in Fernley."

Reid discussed the lives of four Nevada servicemen who were killed within the past year, including Chief Warrant Officer Christian Humphreys, who served at Naval Air Station Fallon, and Naval Air Crewman 3rd Class Sean M. Ward, 20, of Lovelock, who died last week when his helicopter plunged into the Pacific Ocean.

"Chief Warrant Officer Humphreys' home was just down the road from here, on the northwest side of Fallon," Reid said. "He loved flying, backgammon and paintball. ... He loved his parents, Daniel and Sylvia; his sister, Alexandra; and his brother, Tobias. He loved his wife, Christina. And he loved his country.

After leaving the Navy, Humphreys joined the Army and completed helicopter flight school.

"One of his buddies in the rescue squad said Officer Humphreys always 'wanted to fly in the front seat.' On November 15, he fell on the front lines while on a mission over Mosul, Iraq," Reid said.

Reid also reflected on Ward's life in Lovelock as an athlete and honor student at Pershing County High School.

"Everyone in town knew Sean. And everyone knew that when he followed his father into the military, he was doing what he loved," Reid said.

Gov. Jim Gibbons said the state of Nevada has done much to help veterans, but the former combat pilot wanted to praise dedication and service.

"Today is but one special day out of the year," Gibbons said of the military men and women who have served their country. "We should remember them every day, the men and women who gave us the right to be here today ... who fought for the very fly over this cemetery."

Letters were also read on behalf of U.S. Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., who was at the Southern Nevada Veterans Cemetery in Boulder City, and Congressman Dean Heller, R-Nev. The Veterans of Foreign Wars posted the colors and also conducted a Memorial Day ritual with a wreath that symbolized those who had served.