Marion honors veterans, reflects on cost of war at Veterans Day ceremony
Tri-Town Veterans Service Officer Christopher Gerrior speaks at the Marion Veterans Day ceremony at Old Landing Veteran's Park during the Wednesday, Nov. 11 event. Photos by Grace Roche
The Sippican School Band performed several patriotic tunes during the ceremony. 
A number of flags circled the park. 
From left: Select Board members Randy Parker and Toby Burr, and Town Administrator Geoffrey Gorman listen to Gerrior's remarks. 
A kid plays on one of the memorials at the park. 
A wreath honored the veterans who have served in the armed forces. 
Gorman speaks to attendees after the ceremony.
Tri-Town Veterans Service Officer Christopher Gerrior speaks at the Marion Veterans Day ceremony at Old Landing Veteran's Park during the Wednesday, Nov. 11 event. Photos by Grace Roche
The Sippican School Band performed several patriotic tunes during the ceremony.
A number of flags circled the park.
From left: Select Board members Randy Parker and Toby Burr, and Town Administrator Geoffrey Gorman listen to Gerrior's remarks.
A kid plays on one of the memorials at the park.
A wreath honored the veterans who have served in the armed forces.
Gorman speaks to attendees after the ceremony.
MARION — Colorful flags waved in the breeze and speeches and music filled the air as people gathered at Old Landing Veteran's Park to remember those who served.
Marion held its Veterans Day ceremony at the park on Wednesday, Nov. 11 with Tri-Town Veterans Service Officer Christopher Gerrior as the guest speaker and performances by the Sippican School Band.
Select Board member Toby Burr introduced the guest speaker and thanked residents for attending the event to honor the holiday.
“This is a day we say out loud that we are forever indebted to all of our veterans,” Burr said. “It’s a debt we carry every day.”
Gerrior said beyond remembering the sacrifices service members have made, the day should be about remembering the price of war.
He shared the history of the holiday, and said it was originally created following World War I to mark Armistice Day and warn mankind to “never unleash such destruction again.”
He said over the years people have forgotten the second part of this holiday. While movies may glamourize war, he said people who actually experience war “detest” it.
“A mature society does not rush blindly into fire, nor does it make the beating war drum a series of strength,” Gerrior said. “It builds a culture that exhausts every avenue of peace, viewing war not as a political tool or spectacle, but as the ultimate admission of human failure.”
He emphasized the importance of fostering a community that prioritizes peace over conflict and calls on its veterans for leadership and public service.
To fight what Gerrior described as a “quiet crisis of fragmentation,” he called on veterans to offer the discipline, leadership and public service they developed during their time in the military.
Incorporating veterans back into their communities at the end of their service honors them “in the most meaningful way possible,” Gerrior said.
Gerrior enlisted in the Navy in 1993 after graduating from Chaminade University. He served as an aviator and photographer before working in naval intelligence.
