Fallen heroes honored and remembered at Beaman, Conrad services

Although weather conditions threw a wrench in the plans for several local Memorial Day observances on Monday, they couldn’t keep residents and returning area natives from honoring fallen service members in Beaman and Conrad.
           
The Conrad service, which was moved to the BCLUW High School auditorium from the Conrad cemetery, kicked off with an invocation from Pastor Gene Kubli and a patriotic reading of “In Flanders Fields” by Deidra Green before Dan Shine of the local American Legion post read the name of every deceased veteran from Conrad dating back to the War of 1812.
           
Rachel Bachman, a 2010 BCLUW graduate and current teacher with the district, delivered the keynote address about the valor of soldiers and the sacrifices they have made in the line of duty.
           
“Soldiers are warriors. Their bravery can only be matched by few others,” she said. “We have easily one of the best, if not the best military operations in the world. We don’t settle. We seek the exceptional. Some have made the ultimate sacrifice fighting for our country, but there isn’t a single soldier who hasn’t sacrificed something.”
           
Bachman spoke of the “dash” between a person’s birth and death, and how, for soldiers and veterans, that dash is full of “commitment, bravery and sacrifice.” She later paraphrased a Memorial Day speech from former President Barack Obama hailing fallen soldiers who “laid down their lives, so that we could live ours.” 
 
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