CARBONDALE - The title "veteran" is something Staff Sgt. Jeff Rose is still trying to accept.

In February, he returned the with C Co., 2-123rd Field Artillery of the Illinois Army National Guard, after being deployed to Iraq for 15 months.

So being asked to be the guest speaker at Carbondale's Memorial Day ceremony at Woodlawn Cemetery was both an honor and a humbling experience, Rose said.

"It's just weird to feel that (being referred to as a veteran)," Rose said.

Rose also doesn't think of himself as a war hero. That's something he said should be reserved for the World War II, Korean War and Vietnam War veterans crowding the lawn in front of him, listening to his words.

"I'm just an Army National Guardist who was called up and did his part," Rose said.

Monday's ceremony was a routine dating back 140 years to the time when Gen. John A. Logan marched to Woodlawn Cemetery for a small Memorial Day ceremony, Carbondale Mayor Brad Cole told the crowd that gathered at the cemetery.

Members of the Daughters of the American Revolution, American Legion Auxillary Unit 514, Carbondale Preservation Commission and others decorated the graves of some of Carbondale's founders and Civil War heroes with wreaths.

Mathew Thery, whose father was leading the re-enacting C Co., 31st Illinois Volunteer Infantry, was one of the youngest - he's 4 years old - to participate in the day's ceremonies.

Thery laid a wreath on the grave of Lt. Col. John H. White, a member of the 31st Illinois Infantry killed in action during the Civil War.

The day's meaning was not lost on the young boy.

"We honor the soldiers that fought for us," he said.

Members of the 31st and Veterans of Foreign Wars Teeter-Carter-Watson Post 2605 then honored the fallen with a 21-gun salute and the playing of "Taps" by bugler Kenneth Carr.

Many veterans, scattered throughout the cemetery and scattered across generations, stood and saluted the flag. They kept their hands to their foreheads or their hearts as Carr played the last of the patriotic song: "While the light fades from sight/And the stars gleaming rays softly send/To thy hands we our souls, Lord, commend."

Winifred Mitchell came to the ceremony to support the Daughters of the American Revolution, but she's also a veteran. Mitchell served as an Army nurse aboard what was once a French luxury liner in 1945, toward the end of World War II.

Memorial Day is important to her because she has several family members and friends who either fought or are fighting war now.

"If you respect this country - if you love it the way I do - you ought to recognize those who fought to keep it," she said.

kristen.cates@thesouthern.com

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