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Memorial Day, originally known as Decoration Day, was born out of the Civil War and a desire to honor our nation’s dead. On May 5, 1868, General John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic issued his General Order No. 11.
“The 30th of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers, or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village and hamlet churchyard in the land.”
On the first Decoration Day, General James Garfield made a speech at Arlington National Cemetery, and 5,000 participants decorated the graves of the 20,000 Union and Confederate soldiers buried there.
The holiday is observed in almost every state on the last Monday in May with Congressional passage of the National Holiday Act of 1971.
Here are some of the Fort Hays State students who died serving their country, remember them and all who have fallen defending this nation.
World War I
Ralph Burns, Eric H. Cummings, George Davis, William Finch, Charles Harvey, Julius S. Johnson, Julian R. Lahman, C.J. Middlekauff, Arthur M. Scott, Jacob E. Sturm, Willam Rolla Terrill, Gracen I. Wright
World War II
Harold R. Anderson, Andrew Bahl, John Becker, Glenn William Bowie, Glenn Arthur Chalk, Edward Neal Chesney, Russell E. Clark, Mark R. Cleland, Clayton Cecil Doane, Elmer Warren Dougherty, William Chander Dutton, Paul Edgar Enright, Keith Hilton Fedde, Robert Daniel Fittell, Harlan Bolton Foster, Thomas Samuel Freeman, Frederic Brown Geren, David Max Gregory, Eugene R. Harper, John Nicholas Hatcher, Owen A. Hawver, James Robert Herman, Claude C. Hihiser, Joe L. Houser, Henry Van Hoover, William A. Humbird, Leland Jamison, Charles E. Jones, John H. Keeler, Robert Lee Kennedy, Wayne F. Kobler, C.W. Kobler, Harold James Kuhn, Francis Lovitt, Ellwood Mackenzie, David M. Markel, Herbert Meuli, John Matthews Prater, Herbert Rasmussen, Bill D. Rhodabarger, Carl W. Rogg, Gayle W. Russell, Herbert Seyfrit, Wallace Harold Shipley, Lloyd Sidener, Alvin Staab, Victor Tompkins, William Varner, Vernon Earl Waeldin, Chester Earl Walter, Kenneth Lloyd Wells, John Barr Willcoxon, Glenn Leroy Worrell
Korean War
Richard K. Jones, Bobby Mac Kennedy, O. Eugene Rouse, J.D. Sharp, Clyde Lewis Wallace
Vietnam War
Kent L. Amerine, Barton W. Brooks, Michael L. Donovan, James D. Eisenhour, Samuel R. Gardner, James E. Heskett, Terry A. Householter, Arthur L. Klaus, Norman A. Leikam