(Hudson, WY) – 2024 Memorial Day services were held at the Hudson Cemetery this morning, May 27, where attendees honored those who gave the ultimate sacrifice for our country.
Mayor Sherry Oler welcomed the crowd, and stressed the importance of looking to the past and honoring those who fought for our freedoms, especially in our modern times of divisiveness.
Mayor Oler then thanked the local officials who were present, including Representative Lloyd Larsen, Commissioner Mike Jones, and guest speaker Senator Cale Case, who later echoed Mayor Oler’s sentiments about coming together.
“We are a very divided nation, but I look back at Hudson in 1941,” Senator Case began before stating that even then, there was division in our country.
“We can learn the way out of so much divisiveness, we can forge unity. We’re still the same America. We have that in our hearts.”
“This town has given a lot to protect freedom in America,” Senator Case also stated in his address before going on to recognize some of the Hudson heroes who served, along with their respective families, many of whom were in attendance.
Senator Case commented that while spending time at the Hudson WWII Memorial, he saw five names of local men who died while serving in WWII, including John Christando, Frank Homec, David Hoyt Jr., Gasparo Gottino and John Valhusky.
While looking at that memorial, Senator Case shared that he counted 80 different names total of folks from Hudson who served in WWII, but noticed there were only 52 surnames.
Senator Case observed that this is the perfect documentation of how many local families contributed to serving our country, some of which which included: Burkus, Bebout, Vinich, Homec, Svilar, Madjic, Kalasinsky, Pavelich, Oceanas, and Radovich.
Senator Case then solemnly recognized that after the tragic passing of Dessie Bebout, there are no longer any Hudson WWII survivors here with us today.
“Those Americans rose and fought for this nation, defended the world from tyranny,” Senator Case recognized before reiterating the importance of Memorial Day, and making sure those names are honored today, and for years to come.