Here too valor rests

Photo By Petty Officer 2nd Class Joshua Nistas | Commander of Joint Task Force Guantanamo Navy Rear Adm. Thomas Copeman gives a Memorial Day address at Cuzco Wells Cemetery, U.S. Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, May 31. Service members assigned to JTF Guantanamo and U.S. Naval Station Guantanamo Bay paid tribute to fallen service members during a ceremony at the cemetery. JTF Guantanamo conducts safe, humane, legal and transparent care and custody of detainees, including those convicted by military commission and those ordered released by a court. The JTF conducts intelligence collection, analysis and dissemination for the protection of detainees and personnel working in JTF Guantanamo facilities and in support of the War on Terror. JTF Guantanamo provides support to the Office of Military Commissions, to law enforcement and to war crimes investigations. The JTF conducts planning for and, on order, responds to Caribbean mass migration operations.  

GUANTANAMO BAY, CUBA

06.03.2010

Story by Spc. Tiffany Black 

Joint Task Force Guantanamo Public Affairs

GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba -- As the sun peaked over the hilltops that were once defended by Marines and Cuban forces, service members from Joint Task Force Guantanamo and Naval Station Guantanamo Bay gathered at the Cuzco Wells Cemetery, May 31, to remember and honor those who gave the ultimate sacrifice in support of freedom: their lives.

Navy Rear Admiral Tom Copeman, Joint Task Force Guantanamo Commander, reflected back on history to shed light on the importance of the day.

"Nearly two million men and women have died in combat defending our nation," Copeman said. "Memorial Day is a special holiday, a single day during which we honor those who died in service to our nation, but to whom we continue to remember and honor in out hearts. Today we honor service men and women who have died in our defense. A key component of our nation's greatness lies in our ability to honor, to appreciate and to cherish, through our actions and through our memories, all those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice to ensure our freedom and to their family and friends lives who are forever changed, and to whom we owe and enormous debt."

The Cuzco Wells Cemetery opens to the public only on Memorial Day each year, providing an opportunity to remember those buried there and all of those who have died in service to their country. The cemetery was established in 1940; currently, Naval Hospital Guantanamo Bay is designated custodian for the cemetery. Prior to 1940 there were seven cemeteries and burial plots at various locations on the naval station. In 1944 the base commander decided that all known gravesites would be consolidated into one cemetery, with few exceptions.

Memorial Day is a day to reflect and realize that freedom is neither won nor kept without cost.

"We often hear that freedom has a price and that each generation pays its due," said Navy Capt. Steven Blaisdell, Naval Station Guantanamo Bay commander. "Today we acknowledge a bill paid and say thank you to those who paid the ultimate sacrifice."

Copeman charged everyone to ensure that the deaths of American service men and women become no more than numbers etched in history.

"It has often been said that one death is a tragedy, while millions of deaths is merely a statistic," Copeman said. "What we must never do is to allow the deaths that occurred in our nation's wars to become a statistic. Think of them individually as each of their family members thought of them."

After the guest speakers made their remarks a Memorial Day poem was read. Following the poem, Marines fired a 21-gun salute.

Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day and observed on the last Monday in May, commemorates the sacrifices made by men and women who died while serving in the U.S. military.

The holiday originated to honor Union soldiers in the years following the Civil War but was expanded after World War I to include American casualties of any U.S. military conflict.

In addition to the already recognized holiday, the National Moment of Remembrance was established by Congress in 2000, asking all Americans to voluntarily pause and observe a moment of silence and respect in their own way at 3 p.m. local time.

Currently there are 340 people buried at the Cuzco Wells Cemetery, including those who died while on active duty in the military, the dependents of active-duty service members, merchant marines from the United States and other nations, Cuban residents and refugees, Jamaican and other foreign national employees, and Haitian refugees. Also, 30 Sailors from 16 U.S. war ships and eight Marines who defended freedom are buried there.

As those who gathered on that early morning filed out through the gates one by one, they left behind the gravestones of those whose final resting place lies on an island where battles were fought and history was made.

• Date Taken: 06.03.2010
• Date Posted: 06.03.2010 13:32
• Story ID: 50800
• Location: GUANTANAMO BAY, CU