For many, Memorial Day weekend is the official start to summer.
The stream of campers, ATV trailers and vehicles, filled with eager occupants, on their way to the Flaming Gorge and other destinations is proof of how welcome Memorial Day and the three-day weekend it provides is.
However, others gather to remember the men and women who paid the ultimate sacrifice in service to their county and pay quiet tribute to their acts.
Every Memorial Day at Riverview Cemetery, members of the American Legion Post 28, VFW Post 2321 and others gather to pay their respects in a short ceremony.
"They still speak to us," Tom Niemiec, Commander of Post 28 said. "All you have to do is look around you to see their legacy."
That legacy, Niemiec said, are the people living as Americans.
Many remember the sacrifices paid by soldiers while on duty, with Niemiec speaking about 1st. Lt. Frank Luke, the first American airman to earn the Medal of Honor.
Luke, a brash pilot who often few alone, had recorded 18 victories over German airmen during the war. He achieved these air victories over the course of eight days and 10 attacks. While flying a mission to shoot down three German observation balloons behind enemy lines, Luke died Sept. 29, 1918, after being shot down near the small French village of Murvaux. Luke was severely wounded by light machine gun fire from a nearby hill and landed his plane. He then made his way to a stream where he would succumb to his injuries, but not before drawing his pistol and firing at German soldiers before dying.
Not all who were killed in action served as soldiers, as Niemiec mentioned while telling 1st Lt. Sharon Lane's story. Lane was a nurse serving in the 312th Evacuation Hospital at Chu Lai, Vietnam. Mortar attacks on the hospital were a regular occurrence, but Lane thrived at the hospital, according to the National Museum of the United States Army website. Lane died while working at the hospital. A 122mm rocket struck the ward she was working in. Lane was one of eight nurses to die while serving in Vietnam and the only nurse killed by hostile fire.
Niemiec said people don't need to be in a foreign country when they give their lives to their county, citing a recent incident where four marines died in a helicopter crash near El Centro, Calif., April 3. The Marines were killed during a training exercise. Niemiec described the people who have died in service to their country as a diverse group coming from a variety of backgrounds.
"We are here because of (them,)" he said.
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