Moorestown’s Memorial Day ceremony will take place at Memorial Field on Monday, May 26, at 10 a.m.
Attendees are encouraged to bring their own chairs to the rain-or-shine event. Mayor Quinton Law will provide welcome remarks and will be followed by featured speaker Randy Pugh, a combat veteran and law-enforcement professional who enlisted in the Marines at 17. He comes from a family whose military service traces back to the Revolutionary War.
Pugh arrived in Vietnam in March of 1969 at 18 and spent his 13-month tour operating from a combat base in Quảng Nam Province. He was assigned as a tank crewman with B Company, 1st Tank Battalion, 1st Marine Division Headquarters in Danang. Pugh served as a driver, loader and gunner, and finished his tour as a lance corporal and tank commander, the latter a position usually reserved for sergeants.
Pugh received the Combat Action Ribbon, the National Defense Service Medal, the Vietnam Service Medal with one star, the Vietnam Campaign Medal and the Vietnam Cross of Gallantry with Palm and Frame. After an honorable discharge, he served in law enforcement for forty years – including 37 years with the Moorestown police department – making him the longest-serving police officer in New Jersey at the time of his retirement.
This year’s Memorial Day ceremony will include a presentation of the colors, a recitation of the names from the memorial wall and a wreath presentation by the Girl Scouts. Taps will be played by a member of the Deptford high band and Post 42 of the American Legion will fire a 21-gun salute.
