While the Memorial Day observance was somber, it was also a celebration set to music
Young and old packed the Clovis Veteran's Memorial Building Monday. The crowd of over 1,000 was the largest the Memorial District has seen.
The Clovis Community Band treated the audience to familiar choruses from every war era gone by.
As the music played, Art Drolette, a Navy Veteran, reminisced about two comrades lost in World War II.
Art Drolette commented, "I lost two of my high school friends, didn't make it, they didn't get back. I'm very fortunate I'm almost 86 years old, that seems like a long, long time ago, 60 years."
The Memorial Day observance took on a somber tone when they announced the names of 59 fallen heroes from Clovis. Gold star heroes, from World War II all the way through the current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Narrator reads, "Nicholas, Nick Eischen, Jared Hubbard, Nathan Hubbard."
Army National Guard Veteran Daral Kennedy says hearing the names year after year doesn't get any easier.
Kennedy told us, "Two very close friends I went to high school with and college with, my running buddies, my road dog buddies, were killed in Vietnam. So it means much to me they all sacrified for my freedom, my country's freedom and other people's freedoms."
Although Elysa Altounian has no particular ties to the military Monday's tribute to fallen Veterans moved her to tears.
Elysa Altounian says, "I just think about the freedom that we do have, it isn't free, I just think about young men and women too, their lives are cut short for what? For us! I just think a lot of people don't remember that."
A small token of appreciation for those who gave their tomorrows.
