Chief Warrant Officer Four Robert R. Collins of Campbell delivers the keynote address for the city’s annual Memorial Day program next to Campbell Memorial High School’s Veterans Monument. Collins graduated from the school in 1984 and has more than 41 years of active and National Guard service under his belt.

CAMPBELL — Gina Sferra vividly remembers when she was 6 and was among the children asked to line up in the family’s living room near the front door to say goodbye to a beloved relative who was leaving to fight in the Vietnam War.

U.S. Army Pfc. Robert G. Stanko never returned home, however.

“He was fun — like our life-sized toy. He spent a lot of time with my dad, who was his brother,” Sferra said.

After traveling halfway around the world to fight in the war, Stanko, who was with the 4th Infantry Division, 6th Battalion, 29th Artillery, was killed via “nonhostile action reported as intentional homicide” after having been shot to death Oct. 31, 1968, in a foxhole in Pleiku Province, Vietnam, while trying to break up a fight between two others. He was 20.

The young soldier also was among the city’s fallen veterans of all military branches who were honored during an annual Memorial Day program and remembrance ceremony Monday morning next to Campbell Memorial High School’s Veterans Monument, 280 Sixth St.

Serving as master of ceremonies was city Councilwoman Mary Janek, D-3rd Ward.

Sferra and other family members remembered Stanko as fun-loving, someone who enjoyed playing innocent practical jokes and pranks on his younger relatives and, on occasion, taking them to a nearby Dairy Queen to buy them ice cream cones.

“He loved to scare us, and we loved to be scared,” Sferra said, adding that her uncle also was president of his Campbell High Class of 1966 and enjoyed playing the saxophone in a small band.

“He was one of the rocks of our family. He was really a born leader,” city Councilman Robert Stanko, D-4th Ward, said.

The younger Stanko was born a few years after his uncle’s death, but was named after him, he added.

In addition, three of Stanko’s uncles later served in the military, the councilman said.

Other Gold Star family members of the late Stanko who attended Monday’s program were Michelle Miranda, Yvonne Stanko and Susan Stanko.

The somber, 45-minute event’s keynote speaker was Chief Warrant Officer Four Robert R. Collins, a 1984 Campbell High grad who is a full-time installation logistics officer at Camp James A. Garfield Joint Military Training Center in Ravenna, formerly Camp Ravenna.

“Memorial Day is about sacrifice. It is about those who answered the call to serve and gave everything they had, everything they were, so that others could live in peace and security,” said Collins, who has more than 41 years of active and National Guard service. “These are individuals who didn’t seek recognition or reward. They stepped forward because they believed in something greater than themselves: their country, their communities and each other.”

Key sacrifices many of those who opted to serve their country made at young ages were accepting lengthy amounts of time away from families and placing their lives on hold — as well as making the ultimate sacrifice, Collins reminded his audience.

Collins, who joined the Army in 1985 and earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting in 1996 from Youngstown State University, said that merely remembering those whose lives were cut short in service to the nation is not enough.

“The true way we honor the fallen is by how we live; it’s in how we care for one another,” he said, adding, “It’s in how we strengthen our communities. It’s in whether we choose service over self-interest, unity over division and purpose over complacency.

“That is the spirit that binds us together, and it’s the legacy left to us by those we honor today.”

Collins concluded by stressing his desire to also honor grieving family members who have lost loved ones in combat.

This year also marks the 100th birthday of Campbell, a city that remains “grounded in patriotism and service,” Janek said in her remarks. It’s vital that efforts to teach younger and future generations the value and meaning of sacrifice continue, she added.

“Heroes came from towns just like ours. We must honor families who carry the weight of loss every day,” Mayor Bill Valentino said.

Also making remarks was city Law Director Lamprini G. Mathews, who added that behind each flag flown on the holiday is the story of someone “who gave up everything for the country.”

In addition, U.S. Air Force Sgt. George Rusnak read aloud the names of the fallen from Campbell. In a call-and-response pattern, each name he read was followed by the response of “absent.”