Memorial Day in the Midlands

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WOLO) — “I still miss him after all these years, he was my good friend,” says Elizabeth Briggs, lost a friend to the Vietnam War. Elizabeth Briggs has come to Memorial Park in Dowtown Columbia every Memorial Day since the park opened. “I look at all these names and I think of all these people who come here and every name they look at represents someone who was dear to them,” says Briggs. She comes here to remember a friend killed in the Vietnam War. “He went in three times as a helicopter pilot to rescue his friends and the third time he was unable to get out,” says Briggs. “So many gone, life’s so short,” says Wilford Goff, lost a friend to the Vietnam War. This Memorial Day is Goff’s first visit to the park. “It was chilling,” says Goff. He too comes here to remember a friend killed in Vietnam, though he’s not sure why it took all these years to come here. “Losing friends it’s just hard to come,” says Goff. Across town Boy Scouts with Troop 276 spent the morning putting up flags in yards throughout Lake Carolina. “It’s a constant reminder that we have people in harm’s way,” says Justin Griffin, who’s son is in Troop 276. Crandall Sims reporting, “Here at Piney Grove Cemetery next to Bower Parkway, wreaths with American Flags on them mark the entrance, and just inside these gates are several graves with American flags on them, commemorating the day.” Flags on graves also play homage to the history of Memorial Day itself, which was previously called “Decoration Day.” It’s a history that those like Elizabeth Briggs say, we should aways keep in mind. “Remembering, remembering, we must never never forget,” says Briggs.