Pappy Boyington Detachment 966 honors fallen soldiers

The American flag hung at half staff as relatives and loved ones of Kootenai County’s veterans lined the roads of the Coeur d’Alene Memorial Gardens Monday afternoon.

The Pappy Boyington Detachment 966 of the Marine Corps League performed a Memorial Day service worthy of the community’s fallen soldiers, complete with the laying of a wreath and a rifle salute.

Post Falls City Councilor Kerri Thoreson - whose father, the late Ronald D. Rankin, was a founding member of Detachment 966 and a Marine who served in the Philippines in WWII, the Inchon Landing and the Battle of the Chosin Reservoir in the Korean War - gave a moving speech about how easy it is to get caught up in numbers and names. She said about 620,000 Americans have died since World War I. Behind those statistics are people who left behind family and friends.

“Numbers are just that: numbers,” she addressed the crowd. “But each one represents someone’s son, brother, husband, father, friend. And in this generation also someone’s daughter, sister, wife, mother and friend.”

Thoreson went on to humanize some of those statistics. Jim Shepperd served in the Navy during World War II. His friend, Rockland (Jimmy) Randall, was killed in action in Okinawa. Almost 70 years later, Shepperd was taking boxes of old flags to be retired by the Boy Scouts. He noticed one with Randall’s old address on it and opened it to find the 48-star flag that had draped over his friend’s casket. He now flies that flag from his house every Fourth of July and Veterans Day.

Thoreson told two more stories about the hardship that follows when families and friends find out their loved one died in action. She told the story of the wife, infant son and soon-to-be daughter that Russell Lee Watson left behind when he was killed in Vietnam.

She also told the story of Spc. Nicholas Newby of Coeur d’Alene who was killed in Iraq in 2011. Friends, families and other veterans lined the streets of the city that day to watch and pay respects to the fallen soldier.

As she spoke about Watson and Newby, Thoreson couldn’t look at the families that were gathered at the Memorial Gardens that day. 

“Knowing all those people were out there, I couldn’t look,” she said.

At the end of the ceremony, the names of all the soldiers from Kootenai County who have died since last Memorial Day were read aloud. As each name was read, a bell was rung. Everyone bowed their heads in silence as the bell rang 24 times.

Thoreson concluded her speech, leaving those in attendance with something to think about and strive for.

“On this Memorial Day, and every day, remember those who gave their lives in service to the United States of America,” she said. “Honor them with your actions.”