Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
Worland's Floyd Minch American Legion Post 44 Honor Guard performs a 21-gun-salute at the end of the Memorial Day Service at the Worland cemeter on May 27.
Sean Mortimer Wyoming's U.S. Representative Harriet Hageman speaks during the Memorial Day Service at the Worland cemetery on May 27.
Wyoming's U.S. Congressional Representative Harriet Hageman was a special guest during the annual Memorial Day service held at the Riverview Memorial Gardens cemetery in Worland and at the Ten Sleep Cemetery on May 27, and she delivered a very reflective speech.
She began, "I want you to know what an incredible honor it is to represent you in Congress; I've been there for a little over a year and a half now, and I have learned a lot to say the least, but to be able to come back to Wyoming, to come back to the communities and meet with you on the issues that are truly important to you, it has been truly an honor of a lifetime."
"I will also say that every member of Congress is extremely jealous of me, and that's because I get to represent Wyoming. They're jealous because they see in Wyoming what American was. They see our independence, our freedom, and what we stand for," Hageman added.
Hageman took a somber tone in reflecting on the nature of Memorial Day, saying, "...When you think about those who have taken that oath - this gentleman in his uniform here, my husband who served in the Air Force, my father who served in the Army - what they took was the oath to protect freedom, liberty, and a form of government that no other country in the history of the world ever recognized. People have laid down their lives to preserve that."
She continued, "...We owe a debt that can never be repaid to those who have given their lives in service, to the families that they left behind. Events like this help to keep their legacy alive, and to remind us of our task; to continue the work that they furthered and keep the spirit of liberty in our communities. To that end, I hope we will all spend some time this Memorial Day reflecting on the sacrifice of people like Worland's own Private First Class Henry Maul, who was killed at a base in South Vietnam, or First Lieutenant Alva Krogman, who's body was buried here 54 years after his plane was shot down over Laos in the same war, and Floyd Minch, the first Washakie County resident killed in World War I in 1918."
Hageman's speech was followed by the placing of the wreaths representing the various branches of United States armed forces and wars and conflicts, the closing benediction and finally a 21-gun salute courtesy of the American Legion Floyd Minch Post 44 Honor Guard.
