Honor Guard

Although Memorial Day has become synonymous with barbeques and cookouts, the municipalities of Aberdeen, Havre de Grace, Perryville and Port Deposit are determined to promote the original meaning, with the help of their respective local veterans organizations. Each town is hosting a Memorial Day ceremony on Monday, May 30, to honor members of the military who fought and died in various wars throughout American history. Aberdeen The ceremony for Aberdeen will start at 11 a.m. at Veterans Park, hosted by the local American Legion Post 128, VFW Post 10028 and a local branch of the Catholic War Veterans.

The news weeklies pay tribute to Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis this week, with Peggy Noonan, former rhetorician to our Republican presidents, leading the charge for Time. It must have been an assignment she couldn't turn down, but Ms. Noonan -- still a child when JFK was assassinated -- lets the lyric impulse propel her past the point of credibility: Her paean climaxes with the state funeral she'd like for Jackie, with "a flag on her coffin and the coffin on a catafalque, [marching] down a great avenue, with an honor guard . . . and muffled drums," a vision that swells with patriotic nostalgia but doesn't suit Jackie's image at all. There's a hollow echo here that recalls the Music Man, pitching the River City parents on a band that marches only in his imagination.

Bells tolled from Zion Lutheran Church and a crowd of more than 100 residents, damp with the unseasonable heat, grew silent. A gleaming hearse pulled up in front of Baltimore's City Hall, bringing the body of William Donald Schaefer to the building from which he guided the city for more than 30 years, as a city councilman, council president and mayor. After lying in state in the State House in Annapolis and passing by some of the late leader's most beloved spots in the city, Schaefer's body was brought to City Hall on Monday evening, where he will continue to lie in state Tuesday.

During his yearlong deployment in Iraq, Maryland National Guard Col. Sean Casey missed Maryland's color - a world where everything wasn't dark tan or dark green. Maj. Jared Lake had a hunger for Papa John's pizza and a day with his 5-year-old son. And Staff Sgt. Brian Dudley was missing his kids' basketball games and sleeping in a comfortable bed. Yesterday the sacrifices - great and small - of Maryland's citizen soldiers were recognized by elected officials, including Gov. Martin O'Malley.

When he joined the Coast Guard in 1942, Ronald Reese figured that any beaches he saw would be nearby, like Ocean City.What he got was Normandy.Mr. Reese, a carpenter's mate who grew up in Walbrook, didn't expect the Coast Guard to give him a tour of the world. But that's what happened.Here are the Allied invasions he witnessed during World War II: North Africa. Sicily. Salerno. Anzio.And D-Day in France. Utah Beach, to be exact.All from the deck of a landing craft. As a crew member, his job was to patch up any damage from enemy guns so that troops and supplies would get ashore.

IT WAS NEARLY midnight when the field phone beckoned me. The voice at the other end was Ed Taylor, the operations officer for the 25th Infantry Division. "John, hate to bother you but the 3/22 [3rd Battalion/22nd Infantry] had a bad explosion on one of their tracks [armored personnel carriers] this afternoon. They lost the entire crew. The old man is going out there at first light and he needs to be brought up to speed on exactly what happened. I've got a chopper that can take you to brigade headquarters and they can get you to the company location."

WHEN EVENING shadows slipped across Vietnam's Central Highlands, Staff Sgt. Fred Bromwell got painted up and went night stalking. He would creep up on jungled enemy camps, lay and watch trails or spring thunderous ambushes. As a reconnaissance bushmaster, he was indistinguishable as a clump of bamboo, waiting to pounce.When he finally left the war after five years, Bromwell had claimed 109 confirmed enemy kills. But Vietnam had claimed another casualty in Bromwell - years of work would finally allow him to declare peace within his soul.

The first day Ed Hojnacki tried to land a job with the Orioles was a bust. So was the second day. And the third. But he came back one more time in 1967 and he has been on the payroll ever since. Yet, the 36 seasons of service logged by Hojnacki are nothing compared to John Rachuba's nearly five decades, Henry Wolf's 46 years or Gordon Kennard Sr.'s 43. They are what Camden Yards operations director Roger Hayden calls "the backbone" of the behind-the-scenes crew. This year, a dozen of them will be given rings for their work as ushers, gate greeters, ticket takers and crew supervisors.

Gary Williams and Greivis Vasquez have long been each other's most passionate advocates. When Williams, the Maryland men's basketball coach, was criticized in the media last season over the team's direction and recruiting, it was Vasquez, the star player, who snapped at reporters: "He has got more money than all of you guys together. He's not worried about what you guys say." When Vasquez is called a showoff by fans, it's Williams who says his senior guard is often misunderstood.

50 years ago The brigade of midshipmen from the Naval Academy will join in welcoming a 1905 alumnus from the Pacific when Fleet Commander Chester W. Nimitz, commander in chief of the Pacific fleet, returns to Washington. The mids will serve as an honor guard at the Capitol. -- The Sun, Oct. 4, 1945.The separation center at Fort George G. Meade has discharged its 50,000th serviceman, Tech 4/g George H. Smith of Greensboro. -- The Sun, Oct. 21, 1945.