A man sat with his wife in the bleachers with a tiny American flag stuck in his hat, covering his grey hair. Next to him sat a man with a T-shirt that said, “If you can read this thank a teacher … if you are reading this in English thank a veteran.” Both men were part of the crowd that gathered to salute and pay tribute to those fallen comrades at the “Day of Remembrance” service held at Memorial Stadium on Monday.

The service included a speech by Dallas County Probate Judge Kim Ballard, as well as different organizations that presented wreaths and flowers in memoriam for soldiers at the monument.

Following the event at Memorial Stadium, the city of Selma held a moment of silence service outside of city hall. The city service read aloud the names of all 140 service men and women from Dallas County that lost their lives and included a moment of silence.

As Ballard spoke at the service, he issued a challenge and asked an important question, “Who will remember the fallen after our generation is gone?”

“What I’m going to say doesn’t need to be said to this audience,” Ballard said, noting there were hardly any young people in the crowd on Monday. “It needs to be said to a generation, or several generations, after this audience.”

Ballard issued a tough challenge to younger generations, saying they need to realize the importance of what the service men and women from the past have done for the nation’s present.

“They [younger generations] need to be reminded that they owe a debt also to these people who fought and some died for them. Not just the ones that died, but the ones that came home maimed,” Ballard said.

Ballard said he was always brought up to remember the soldiers who gave the ultimate sacrifice for his country. He remembers veterans like his uncle coming home from World War II and his brother coming home from Korea as heroes. Ballard is concerned, however, for how veterans will be treated in the future.

“The people that I see in my court now, that were scarred by that war, it’s just heart wrenching for me to see it,” Ballard said. “I can’t understand how anybody could ever forget what those loyal men and women have done to keep us free.”

Emblem Club member and chairman of the Americanism Committee Louise Rose holds Memorial Day in Selma especially close as she lost her brother on Memorial Day. Rose presented a wreath for those fallen on behalf of the Selma Emblem Club.

“This is an emotional day for me,” Rose said. “My brother was in Vietnam and he was captured. He lost his kidneys and he got a kidney transplant but then he lived exactly five years to the day after the transplant.”

Her brother, Hugh Thomas Barnes from Mobile, lost his life from complications of the war, “but he loved God and he loved his country,” Rose said.

Rose, like Ballard, shared her concern about the younger generations not being represented at the memorial services on Monday, as did several others such as Ralph Derryberry who attended the moment of silence.

“Well I never hear Taps and don’t cry,” Derryberry said, who lost his brother S. D. Derryberry Jr. in World War II to a flight training accident and heard his brothers name read aloud at Monday’s service at city hall.

“What I want to see at these things is young people,” Derryberry said. “I have three sons that are grown and I hope that my grandchildren will go into the service.”