As Rhode Island prepares to mark Memorial Day, the torch is passed to a new generation of American veterans.

08:43 AM EDT on Friday, May 28, 2004

BY CATHLEEN F. CROWLEY, BRUCE LANDIS and JENNIFER LEVITZ
Journal Staff Writers

Journal photo / John Freidah Cemetery workers Todd Green, of Exeter, left, and Eddie Repass, of Richmond, prepare for Memorial Day at the Rhode Island Veterans Cemetery in Exeter by placing a flag next to the Navy's Seabees Memorial.

Honoring those who died defending our nation isn't such an abstract idea this year.

More than 800 Americans have died in the war in Iraq, including 10 area soldiers. The deaths are so fresh, their names have yet to be carved on the monuments that many people will visit this Monday, Memorial Day.

The Rhode Island National Guard still has 433 troops deployed overseas, and more than 1,100 Rhode Islanders are serving in the Army.

The gratitude for the active-duty soldiers and the appreciation for those who have died in this war and the ones before it have swelled this Memorial Day.

Lt. Col. Michael McNamara, spokesman for the Rhode Island National Guard, said the day has a special stature this year.

"We are noticing a lot more requests for participation, a lot more parades," McNamara said.

He attributes that to Rhode Island's excitement over the troops who have been returning from Iraq, and also to the 60th anniversary of D-Day and to the dedication this weekend of the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C.

"I would tell you that veterans groups are always very busy with Memorial Day, but [the holiday] is hitting a lot more people now than it has in the past," McNamara said.

McNamara said he's not surprised that Rhode Island wants to recognize the troops, or that the National Guard has been invited to some 18 events, from a parade in Charlestown to a ceremony held by the Cumberland Veterans Council.

In recent months, he said, Rhode Island has shown nonstop support. He said residents have shipped 61 tons of care packages to troops -- "toothpaste to socks, and bug spray to cookies to crackers."

"No matter what the political realization is about the war or how we're conducting it, it has never come down to people not supporting the troops," he said. "That's been very important to us . . . don't forget that these kids are over there doing their best."

A crowd of 4,000 at the Community College of Rhode Island made it clear what it thinks of America's military personnel.

College officials invited National Guard soldiers to its graduation ceremony last Friday to recognize the students, faculty and other members of the CCRI community connected to the military.

The Guard sent seven members of the 115th and 119th Military Police companies, who marched at the front of the commencement procession, right behind the color guard and ahead of the faculty and 800 graduates.

When the audience in the field house at the college's Warwick Campus saw the guardsmen, who had been in Iraq until April, it stood and applauded.

"They probably applauded for two minutes," said Dennis Moore, assistant to the CCRI president. "It was great."

After the ceremony, when the seven soldiers marched back out, they got another standing ovation, he said.

Later, as Moore was accompanying the soldiers back to their cars, they passed through the big hall in the college's main building. A few dozen people attending the commencement couldn't fit in the field house, so they had watched the ceremony on TV from the main hall.

When the guard solders walked through, those people applauded them, too, Moore said.

"I'll never forget this for the rest of my life," a female Guard soldier told Moore afterward.

Photo courtesy of Samuel Maldonado Capt. Samuel Maldonado, center, and members of the 115th Military Police Company of the Rhode Island National Guard, based in Cranston, display some of the improvised explosive devices that were confiscated during a raid at an Iraqi house.

EACH MEMORIAL DAY, there is a ceremony at the Rhode Island Veterans Cemetery in Exeter.

There, amid the graves of 19,000 soldiers, a veteran from World War II or the Vietnam War or an elected official speaks about sacrifice.

This year, the guest of honor, Capt. Samuel Maldonado, commander of the Rhode Island National Guard 115th Military Police Company, will also speak about sacrifice.

But Maldonado will represent the losses that are fresh on the minds of Rhode Island.

Daniel J. Evangelista, the associate director of Rhode Island's Office of Veterans Affairs, said he chose Maldonado as the speaker because the soldier represents the focus on this Memorial Day -- Iraq.

Evangelista also changed the lineup for the torch passing at Monday's event. After the World War II veteran, after the Vietnam veteran, and after a Gulf War veteran, there will be a veteran of the war in Iraq.

It's not that the state wasn't thinking about Iraq last Memorial Day. At last year's ceremony at the veterans' cemetery, Governor Carcieri said the day was poignant because "we're not just remembering past wars, but the people right now still in harm's way."

But this year, Memorial Day is palpable.

The Rhode Island National Guard has lost three soldiers, the first combat deaths since World War II. More than a dozen members of the 115th were wounded by explosive devices and rocket-propelled grenades.

Nearly three out of four of the 3,800 guardsmen have seen at least one deployment since Sept. 11, 2001.

FOR MANY PEOPLE, Memorial Day is just a day off from work and a chance to throw a barbecue for friends and family or catch up on yard work. Durfee Hardware in Cranston sold four grills this week at $400-plus each, along with lawn and garden supplies.

"We're also selling quite a bit of Kingsford Charcoal," said Mike Pereira, manager of the lawn and garden and hardware departments.

Renee Barber, of Pawtucket, is hoping for nice weather so she can take her three boys outside to play. But the Barber family will also take a moment to remember the fallen soldiers.

"People need to reflect on what Memorial Day actually means. They need to turn around and thank their veterans, the people who are fighting for us now," Barber said as she watched one of her son's baseball games at Slater Memorial Park. "Especially with that new terror alert, people need to be very grateful that we have these people defending us as a country."

Barber will place flowers at her grandfather's gravestone and call her father to wish him well. Both men served in the military.

"Go see a war memorial," she suggested. "Pay respect to these people who died for you."