Col. (Ret.) Clyde Northrop called upon Americans to “listen to the voices of the dead” whose voices and experiences encourage the living to “keep the liberties for which we fought and died.”

Northrop was the keynote speaker at Saturday morning’s Memorial Day service held in the Covington Veterans Memorial Park.

Standing before the obelisk that bears the names of the county’s war dead, Northrop said, “Those listed on this monument join a great crowd of witnesses,” he said.

“It will never be enough to lay the wreaths, fire the weapons and play the taps,” Northrop said. “Those whose names are carved in granite speak by their heroic actions and perseverance. Their experience ought never be silenced.

“Hear them as they thunder, ‘Keep the liberties for which we fought and died. Honor our faith by the way you live.’ ”

Northrop recounted his own military experiences around the world.

“When I joined the military in 1954, I was issued an Eisenhower jacket,” he said. “I entered a unit replacing a deactivating unit from Korea.

“Thirty-four years later in Korea, I ministered to soldiers still under nightly live fire,” he said. “Today we face a new generation of the same lying tyrant.”

- Andalusia Star News