For much of the year, all that hangs over the dead at Clear Creek Cemetery are the sounds of silence.
This past week was special, bringing the sounds of American flags snapping in the breeze beneath a clear blue sky and gunshots reverberating through the air.
All of it was in honor of the men and women who have and continue to serve this nation by wearing the uniform of the armed forces.
It was one of many ceremonies held around the region to mark Veterans Day, a day originally set aside to mark the end of World War I but that grew into a day to remember all who have served in uniform, in peacetime and in war.
The graves of veterans at Clear Creek were marked with small flags.
There are around 240 or so such graves, a testament to the spirit of service in the Verde Valley. Camp Verde Mayor Bob Burnside pointed out that some of those graves held the bones of veterans who died young, while others held those who lived a long life. It was no matter, for both had at one point served to protect this nation’s ideals.
Wrinkled skin and age spots are far from uncommon at such ceremonies, with men in their decorated legion hats making the effort to stand for a salute to God and Old Glory. But with each Veterans Day ceremony comes the reminder that this nation is still involved in war.
“We honor the dead, but not everyone here is so advanced in age,” said Sharon Doran, vice president of the American Legion Auxiliary. “Look at the young men and women in their 20s who serve their country today.”
Doran shed tears thinking of those who serve, from full career soldiers to the reservists.
“They don’t necessarily have to be on the front line,” Doran said. “They all have signed their lives over in service to this country.”
Only the dead have seen the end of war, but American Legion Post Cmdr. Tom Dimock offered a hope that the living could one day do the same, echoing a familiar phrase spoken by those who remain.
“All gave some,” Dimock said. “But some gave all.”
