Memorial Day hits home for local hamlet

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May 26, 2012

Memorial Day hits home for local hamlet

By JOE MAHONEY Staff Writer The Daily Star Sat May 26, 2012, 07:31 AM EDT

BURLINGTON FLATS -- As memories of past wars become more distant, the significance of Memorial Day has faded for many people. For them, the holiday has become a sort of welcoming party for the oncoming summer season, a time to have a picnic or go to the lake.

But in Burlington Flats, people remember the roots of Memorial Day.

They are passionate and proud when it comes to the local parade that will wend its way through the hamlet Monday, culminating in a service at Veterans Memorial Park.

There, one youngster will recite the World War I-era poem, "In Flanders Field," by the Canadian Col. John McCrae, and another will recite President Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.

The Memorial Day parade and the services that go along with it in Burlington Flats are traditions that the Gold Star mother and father named Cathy and Lee Mayne say they deeply appreciate.

For them, all they have to do is look out the window of their home to see the half dozen flagpoles that their son, Michael, erected when he was an Eagle Scout in Veterans Memorial Park.

The park is across the street from her home. The six poles sprouting from it were put up by Michael and his friends to honor the six branches of the United States military. Now, to many people in the small hamlet in northwestern Otsego County, the poles also serve as a reminder of U.S. Army Cpl. Michael Mayne's sacrifice and valor on behalf of his country.

In February 2009, three months before his tour of Iraq would have concluded, Michael Mayne, along with two other soldiers and an interpreter, were killed in the line of duty by insurgents in Iraq.

"In his short life, Michael left his mark on this town," Cathy Mayne said as she prepared for the third Memorial Day weekend since her only son was killed in action.

"When you drive into town, the flag poles are the first things people see," she pointed out. "On Memorial Day, when they raise the flags as they play the National Anthem, you can't help but think of Mike -- because he put up those poles."

A new graduate of the State Police K-9 Academy, a female German Shepherd named Mika -- named for Michael Mayne and assigned to Otsego County Sheriff's Deputy Kris Solovitch -- will make her maiden appearance in this year's parade.

On Monday, the hamlet residents, who had packed the Baptist Church three years ago for the funeral of Michael Mayne, will again pay tribute to the sacrifice of Michael Mayne, a 2006 graduate of Edmeston Central School.

They will also remember another native son, Private First Class Andrew Rose, killed in action in June 1969 during a search and destroy mission in Vietnam. They will also reflect on the sacrifice of Army Private Sherrill Hull, one of the hundreds of soldiers who were lost at sea when the SS Dorchester was sunk by a German U-boat in February 1943 off the coast of Greenland. Hull, as fate would have it, had lived in the same house where Michael Mayne would later grow up.

"Memorial Day has been pretty personal for Burlington Flats for quite some time," said Jay Henderson, pastor of Burlington Flats Baptist Church. "We sent our boys out to war and some didn't come back. We think it's important here to take that time to remember and to take that time to express our gratitude, not only to honor them but to show our love for their families as well. I know that for some people this is jut a day off. I agree that it's too bad some people have lost that sense of remembrance. But the sacrifices that were made during war need to be remembered."

Those expected to participate in the Burlington Flats parade include U.S. Rep. Chris Gibson, R-Kinderhook, and state Sen. Jim Seward, R-Milford.

Burlington Flats is steeped in its tradition of honoring those who served in war, Henderson said.

"Michael Mayne was Burlington Flats," the pastor said. "We haven't tried to reinvent ourselves. We are who we are. Michael was part of the fabric here. He was a fine young man who was very active in the community."

Michael Mayne, according to his father, Lee Mayne, put up the flagpoles to honor his maternal grandfather, Howard Francisco, a World War II veteran.

Lee Mayne said he is pleased that the tributes to his son have become part of the local tradition for Memorial Day. "It makes me very proud of what my son did for his country, because he believed he was doing what was right," the father said.

Among those planning to attend Monday's parade is Robert Jablonski of West Winfield, a former deacon at the Baptist Church in the hamlet and a Vietnam combat veteran.

Growing up, he recalled, "Your loyalty was always first to God, then country, then family, and then somehow we have been getting away from that," Jablonski lamented. "It's all become about me and me. I thank God for people like Mike Mayne, who still believed in God, this country and family. I thank there are still people who believe we have a country worth dying for."

On Memorial Day, Cathy Mayne said she will not only be thinking of the sacrifices made by her son and the two buddies who were killed with him, but the other soldiers in his unit who have to live with the pain of having lost comrades in battle.

"I often think about these guys who had to go back to three empty bunks," the mother said. "I often wonder about the effect this had on them, and how they have to live with this for the rest of their lives."

She said her son aspired to become a state trooper once he fulfilled his five-year enlistment obligation with the Army, which would have come last Nov. 11.

"He was so proud to be serving in Iraq," she recalled. "He'd say, 'We have to be here for the kids. You should see the kids over here now. Now they have freedom of religion. And they can choose where they go to school.' He was really glad to be there."