Delaware communities are set to mark Memorial Day on May 25 with parades and ceremonies in Smyrna, Dover, Milford and Middletown, as towns across the state gather to remember service members who died while serving the United States.
In Middletown, a Memorial Day parade begins at Redding Middle School at 10:30 a.m. on May 25 and is presented by Stone Square Lodge No. 22. Smyrna will hold a parade and ceremony organized by the Smyrna-Clayton Veterans Monument Committee, with the parade starting at Market Street Plaza near the post office at 10 a.m. and moving east on Commerce Street and then north on Main Street to George C. Wright Jr. Municipal Park. A memorial service will follow at the Smyrna-Clayton Veterans Monument in the park, and U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. (Retired) William Welser is the keynote speaker. If rain interrupts the parade, the ceremony will be moved to Citizens' Hose Company at 10:30 a.m. on May 25.
In Dover, Vietnam Veterans of America and the Delaware Veterans Coalition will host a Memorial Day ceremony at Kent County Veterans Memorial Park at 2 p.m. Rhona Prescott will deliver the keynote address. Prescott served as a U.S. Army nurse in Vietnam, and her talk is billed as “Another Kind of War Story,” a title that fits a day built around memory rather than ceremony alone. Milford will hold its annual Memorial Day service in the auditorium of Milford High School at 10:30 a.m. on May 25.
The pattern across Delaware is familiar, but the day still carries weight because Memorial Day falls on the last Monday of May and is set aside to honor those who did not come home. Smyrna’s event also includes a request for donations to maintain the Smyrna-Clayton Veterans Monument, a reminder that remembrance is tied to upkeep as much as to wreaths and speeches. Beyond the parades and speeches, the state’s most popular beach is also seeing a wave of support aimed at keeping memories of fallen service members afloat.
For the people who show up on May 25, the answer to what comes next is simple: the ceremonies keep moving, and the names they honor do not fade when the music stops.
