Spokane residents gather to honor those who gave the last full measure to secure our freedoms

A flag flew at half-mast as U.S. military veterans and their families gathered at Fairmount Memorial Park to honor fallen soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines and those who continue to serve.

The Memorial Day ceremony, hosted by local veterans groups, drew several hundred people to the sprawling cemetery in northwest Spokane. The emcee, Bryan Smith, began the solemn affair with a dramatic retelling of the May 17, 1987 missile attack on a U.S. Navy frigate, the USS Stark, by an Iraqi jet in the Persian Gulf.

“Approximately one-quarter of the crew was incapacitated during the attack,” Smith said. “Twenty-nine were killed immediately. Eight more died later. The survivors were never the same.”

“Memorial Day,” he continued, “is not just a three-day weekend.”

Afterward, the featured speaker, Spokane Police Chief Craig Meidl, discussed his own military service and the lasting impact it has had on his life. Meidl enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve when he was 17 and deployed in December 1990 to fight in the Gulf War as a member of Bravo Company, 4th Tank Battalion, based in Yakima.

“At the time, I did not believe I would come back alive,” Meidl said. “Predictions for casualties were as high as 90 percent due to fear of chemical weapons attacks and the experience of a seasoned Iraqi army.”

Meidl did return five months later, but he said he could not shake the mindset of a Marine. He recalled driving his pickup truck along Interstate 90 one day shortly after his deployment, pondering what he would do if mortar rounds started impacting on the freeway, or if enemy soldiers crested the hill, guns ablaze.

“While it may sound crazy, and maybe it is, I really had these thoughts for months and months after my return,” he said.

Meidl said the scars of war are often invisible, and that many veterans lack adequate treatment for trauma and mental illness stemming from their experiences on the battlefield.

“Sadly many of these veterans are dead on the inside,” Meidl said, discussing alarming statistics from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs that show about 20 veterans die by suicide each day.

Monday’s ceremony also featured performances of the national anthem, “Taps,” “Amazing Grace” and “God Bless America,” and a rifle volley and salute by the Marine Corps League Honor Guard.

“We ask our military members to do unspeakable things to keep our country safe. We send them to foreign soil to keep the battle off American soil,” Meidl said. “They do things for us, they see things for us and they experience things for us that no one should ever be called upon to do.”

“These heroes have given us freedom, security and the greatest nation on Earth,” he said. “It is impossible to put a price on that.”