Originally the observance was set to begin at 9:30 a.m. with a parade forming at the City Cemetery and going down Cemetery Avenue. The parade was canceled due to the rain, and the observance started at 10 instead. The venue was changed from the cemetery to the Community Center.

The Concord Singers and New Ulm Municipal Band each performed selections during the ceremony, with the Municipal Band playing the honorary songs for each military branch. Joey Kotton gave the Gettysburg Address.

Gunnery Sgt. Joseph Stevens was the keynote speaker.

Stevens started his speech by recognizing several men who had died during combat in the Middle East. He said Memorial Day started as Decoration Day after the Civil War.

Joseph Stevens delivers the keynote address during the Memorial Day program. Stevens gave a history of how Memorial Day became a National Holiday. Originally, the holiday started in the aftermath of the Civil War and was known as Decoration Day. The holiday was renamed Memorial Day during WWII.

“By the late 1860s America, in variation towns and cities, had begun holding springtime tributes to those countless fallen soldiers,” Stevens said. “They were decorating graves with flowers and reciting prayers.”

The holiday was changed to Memorial Day after World War II and recognized as a federal holiday in 1971. Stevens said only 0.4% of Americans are military members. He said that 0.4% are the best in the world and those that have been lost will never be forgotten.

“Woodrow Wilson said in 1914, ‘I have never quite been able to feel that half mast flag appropriate on Decoration Day,” Stevens said. “I have rather felt that flag should be at the peak. Because those who’s dying we commemorate rejoice in seeing where their valor places it.”

Stevens ended his speech with a quote from Lee Greenwald. “‘I’m proud to be an American where at least I know I’m free. And they won’t forget the men who died who gave that right for me.'” he said.

Commander of Disabled American Veterans Chapter 15 Michael Finstad was the Master of Ceremonies for the day and took time to share the story of New Ulm native, Silver Star recipient, and WWII casualty Clarence Aschenbrenner.

The Concord Singers perform during the Memorial Day program.

Finstad said in the 1930s and 1940s nicknames were very prevalent in New Ulm. His grandpa Jerome was known as Sam, his uncle Ignatius as Dots, and his grandma Caroline has Lena on her gravestone. He said this prevalence was also seen in Aschenbrenner.

“In New Ulm, he was known as Shiny,” he said. “In the Navy, he was known as the bull. They said he did the work of two to three men and drank the amount of four.”

Finstad said Aschenbrenner was 5 foot 6 with the exuberance of a child and muscular development of a grizzly bear.

“He was convinced there was no more honorable or enviable job than being a blue jacket in the United States Navy,” he said. “He was so brimming with power and innocent spontaneous pleasure that it spilled over.”

Finstad also shared how America had prepared 1.5 million Purple Hearts in 1943 in preparation for a full-scale military invasion of Japan. After WWII ended there was a 500,000 surplus. From then until 2000, no new Purple Hearts were made.

Finstad ended the ceremony by sharing the names of New Ulm veterans who had died since last years Memorial Day Observance.