Correspondent photo / Bill Koch Fred Schrock of North Jackson gives the keynote speech Monday during the Canfield Memorial Day ceremony in the Village Green.

CANFIELD — “I’ll look out for you as you look out for me.”

Fred Schrock, the keynote speaker at the Memorial Day ceremony in Canfield, obeyed this credo while risking his life as a medic in Vietnam.

About 200 congregated at 10 a.m. Monday at the Veterans Plaza on the north end of the Village Green. The American Legion Post 177 Honor Guard arrived from North Broad Street, followed by the Canfield High School Cardinal Pride marching band. After the national anthem, sung by the high school choir, and the Pledge of Allegiance, Chaplain Paul Harkey gave the invocation.

Schrock, of North Jackson, noted that all soldiers, whether they enlisted or were drafted, took an oath “to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”

In his address, which he titled “We Dare Not Forget,” he lamented the current situation in which many people are more concerned about “winning an argument” than “finding a way to live together with our differences.”

He expressed hope that we would “seek to exemplify the peace that passes understanding so that those who gave their lives did not die in vain.”

Besides Schrock, other participants included Mayor Don Dragish. He observed we commemorate the dead “not just on distant battlefields but in our community,” and it is important for all of us to “listen, ask questions and learn.”

Navy veteran Christine Oliver, of Canfield, implored the listeners to “strive for the ideals for which they fought: freedom, justice and peace.”

Tom and Marianna Morgan, of Canfield, attend the ceremony every year.

Tom Morgan said it was important to “show respect for our military and especially our fallen soldiers.” He said when he returned from Vietnam in 1968, he was met with demonstrators who did not show him that same respect.

Canfield resident Alfred Schaefer was a Navy Seabee. He said, “You look at everyone and understand they all had families. Being killed overseas is a heck of a way to die so we should honor them any way we can.”

After the ceremony, a procession walked to the Canfield East Cemetery to lay a wreath, followed by the Honor Guard firing a salute and the playing of Taps. Everyone was then invited to the War Vets Museum for refreshments.

Dalton Bosze, of Canfield, said it was appropriate to “honor those who gave the ultimate sacrifice, or as Lincoln said, ‘the last full measure of devotion.'”

Wife Jamie Bosze appreciated Schrock’s “concern about history repeating itself. It is important to make sure we don’t make the same mistakes again, so those who gave their lives didn’t die for nothing.”