Honoring the fallen: Parade and observance take place Monday

Mike Crowley, The Meadville Tribune, Pa.
Updated ·4 min read

Meadville joins the nation Monday in honoring those who have died while serving in the U.S. military.

At a time when car races, barbecues and a beach-appropriate three-day weekend are what many people think of when they think of Memorial Day, observances like the one that will take place in Diamond Park provide a reminder of the day’s true purpose.

The purpose takes particularly poignant form during the Diamond Park observance when the names of Crawford County’s own fallen soldiers are read. In keeping with this year’s theme — “Commemorating the Longest Day, D-Day June 6, 1944” — the recitation on Monday will consist of the 231 people who lost their lives during their service in World War II.

“It really resonates home, the many families — there will be a lot of names that will be familiar, that represent a lot of families that are still in Crawford County — that lost a loved one in World War II,” said Joe Galbo, who leads the committee that organizes the parade and observance. “It helps to drive home the personal price that was paid by these families and these communities, and that’s what we commemorate on Memorial Day.”

Serving as grand marshal and featured speaker for the event will be retired Brigadier General Mark Bellini of Greenwood Township.

A native of Bethel Park, Bellini received his Army commission in 1979 after graduating from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. He then spent more than 30 years in various posts that took him across the United States and Europe, including deployments to Somalia, Yugoslavia and to Turkey in support of Operation Iraqi.

Bellini will talk about his impressions of the beaches in Normandy, France, where nearly 160,000 Allied soldiers landed on D-Day. He’ll also reflect on the meaning of Memorial Day, a meaning that, for him, has been shaped by the “the sad duty of handing the folded flag to wives and families of the fallen from Iraq and Afghanistan.

“Although we’ll never understand or appreciate the level of pain and grief in those families, we know their suffering is horrible,” Bellini said in a phone interview Friday. “We can’t forget that they sacrificed for the rest of us. That’s why we remember them every year — and should remember them all year.”

By the end of his military career, Bellini had served in a variety of command and staff positions, eventually rising to become the 49th Quartermaster General of the Army before retiring from his final position as deputy chief of staff of headquarters, United States Army Europe and 7th Army, Heidelberg Germany.

Along the way, he managed to earn three master’s degrees, in business administration, military theater operations, and strategic studies. He was also able to visit the Normandy landing sites several times, the most recent trip coming in 2019 when one of his three daughters, then stationed in England with the Air Force, invited her parents to accompany her on a trip to the landing sites during the 75th anniversary of D-Day.

On those visits, he recalled, with his back to the English Channel and his feet in the water, he gazed at the rocky shore and the fortifications that still loom over the hills rising from the sand and contemplated the feat that was asked of the invading Allied forces.

“I try — and I can’t do it — I try to put myself in the shoes — the boots — of the men that were on those landing craft and what they experienced,” Bellini said, “and I can’t imagine that level of fear and challenge, and I’m so, so grateful there were men that did that.”

Ascending the bluff that overlooks Omaha Beach reveals the cemetery where 9,388 Americans are buried. Another 1,557 missing American soldiers are commemorated as well.

“You see the enormity of the American losses,” Bellini continued. “We can’t forget that, even if we can’t understand it.”

YOU CAN GO

The city of Meadville’s Memorial Day events begin at 10 a.m. Monday with a parade from Water Street to Poplar Street and then north on Market Street before turning east on Chestnut Street to Diamond Park. The observance begins at 11 in Diamond Park and continues until noon when Meadville-area churches traditionally toll their bells. Portions of parade streets will close at about 9 a.m. and reopen shortly after the parade. Diamond Park itself will be closed to traffic from around 9 a.m. until noon.