Service notes courage, sacrifice

Veterans and those whose loved ones served in the military say remembering the soldiers is vital.

By CHRISTOPHER GOFFARD

© St. Petersburg Times, published May 30, 2000

[Times photo: Janel Schroeder] Gulf High School Navy ROTC member Kristen West retires the colors after the service.

HUDSON -- Jack and Irene Brennan had not been married long when the Army sent him to fight the fascists in Italy. He survived World War II, coming home three years later with internal injuries from an exploding mine, and died of natural causes in 1992.

"It's like the bottom of your stomach falls out," said Irene Brennan, 83, of her husband being drafted. "It's such a lonely feeling. It's a different world, until they come home."

The Hudson woman could have been speaking for any of the widows gathered at Grace Memorial Gardens on Monday who, like her, came to place a flag and fresh flowers on a husband's grave and to attend the service held by the Suncoast Veterans Affiliated Council, which drew several hundred people.

Like others, Brennan worried Memorial Day's message of honoring America's military sacrifices has lost some resonance these days.

"People don't seem to realize it today," she said. "It's more picnics and shopping. This should come first. And then do your shopping."

Navy veteran Reynolds Smith, who served on a submarine as a radio and radar specialist in the Pacific during the battle against the Axis, said he never misses a Memorial Day service. They make him think of lost friends, he added.

"We have to keep the memory alive," said Smith, 81, of Beacon Woods. He said he was 24 years old, with a wife and young child, when he was drafted to serve on a 300-foot sub. "We lost 52 boats in the war. It was dangerous, but at the time you did what you had to."

Lt. Col. Thomas Castriota, who serves in the Marine Corps Reserve and who is known locally for his Chevrolet dealership, gave a keynote speech paying homage to those who served from "the beaches of Normandy" to "the jungles of Vietnam."

"They died to keep us free," said Castriota, 46, of New Port Richey.

"We've got to teach the next generation what it means," he said. "If we don't, it is for naught."

Jim McDonald, 70, who played taps and Amazing Grace on the bagpipes at the service, echoed that theme.

"Young people today don't quite understand what these boys went through," he said.

McDonald said he served in the Army as a military policeman in Missouri in the 1950s, but friends went to fight in Korea.

Memorial Day is "an emotional time," he said. "You see people you grew up with go off into harm's way and not come back."

- Staff writer Christopher Goffard can be reached in west Pasco at 869-6236 or (800) 333-7505, ext. 6236. His e-mail address is goffard@sptimes.com.

© St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved.