Dear Editor,
The Kingman Marine Corps League wants to thank all who attended the memorial service that was held in the Veterans Park on Monday, May 25. Those who attended, masked and unmasked, were respectful of those around them. They did their best to spread out. I want to particularly thank the ladies from the Kingman Rotary who gave out masks for all who wanted one. The Kingman Young Marine Color Guard, VVA members Mike Beard who did the Pledge of Allegiance and Dave Stafford who handled our first ever streaming event, which is posted on the Kingman Marine Corps League Facebook page. Chaplain Paul Pitts for loaning us the display.
One WWII story is that Murphy’s Law was invented by the soldiers to denote that anything that could go wrong would go wrong. Murphy’s law was in full force at our Memorial event.
A week prior to the event I went to Kingman Parks Department office and properly registered the service with the front office. They had my name and phone number on file should they need to contact me. This was to be the same event that has taken place for years in the park.
On Monday at 0830 Hrs. Murphy’s Law was in full effect. We found we had no flags; no flag ropes or cable and the power was turned off so no speaker system for music.
The whole idea of registering to use the park is to make sure the city crews have things ready after the shutdown. The flags were up on Saturday and if the cable broke on Sunday do you mean to tell me that the city does not have the resources to fix the situation for a major holiday that honors our nation’s veterans? The fire department has bucket trucks, I think the city has bucket trucks. I am sure that a local business or two have them and would have come out on a Sunday to help.
If they city can’t afford a new rope or cable the Marines will buy it.
Terry Flanagan
Commandant MCL887
XO-Kingman Young Marines
