Area Memorial Day programs

Americans will celebrate Memorial Day on Monday, May 29. Local organizations will celebrate the holiday with programs.

IPSWICH

The Memorial Day service will be held at the Circle of Flags in the Ipswich Cemetery at 5 p.m. on May 29.

ROSCOE

The Roscoe Memorial Day program will begin at 7 p.m. in the Roscoe Legion Post Home.

Bob Thomason of Selby, District IV Legion Commander, will be the speaker.

A potluck supper will be held after the program. Sandwiches will be provided.

HOSMER

The Hosmer Legion will host a program at 10:30 a.m. in St. John’s Lutheran Church in Hosmer.

The Prairie Harmony Singers will provide musical entertainment. Rick Forkel will give the Memorial Day Address.Forkel was born in Ipswich and grew up in Aberdeen. After high school he enlisted in the Air Force. During his 21 year AF career worked as a medic with a focus on medical preparedness and response. He was a responder to Hurricane Andrew (1992) and the flood of the Red River Valley (1997), effecting the evacuation of United Hospital Regional Medical Center. He had four tours of duty supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Joint Endeavor (‘93, ‘94, ‘96, ‘98).

Rick spent many summers in Hosmer with his grandparents. Rick is a distant relative of Adolph Forkel.

After his Air Force career Rick established the first Emergency Management (EM) program, plans, protocols, and type III incident management team that impacted 15 campus locations and over 50K staff, students and faculty for the University of Alaska as their Director of EM.