GLASGOW, Ky. — Inside Glasgow City Hall on Monday morning, Mayor Henry Royse held up an aged envelope preserved for decades inside a family Bible, a reminder that Memorial Day is more than a holiday.

The handwritten note came from H.C. Biggers Jr., a young pilot who thanked his family for graduation gifts after completing military flight school in California before deploying to Europe during World War II.

Biggers was later shot down and killed in action over France, according to newspaper reports from that era. The War Department notified his family in Barren County of his death by telegram on Jan. 21, 1943.

Royse shared the story during Glasgow’s annual Memorial Day observance ceremony, which was moved indoors because of overcast skies and rain. Dozens gathered to honor those who gave their lives in military service.

“The point is that that sacrifice will never be equal. We have to always remember,” Royse said. “I’m standing here as the mayor of a community that I’m so proud honors those who gave the ultimate sacrifice.”

State Rep. Steve Riley also addressed the crowd, asking attendees how many had lost a family member in combat. A few hands rose. When he asked how many had veterans in their family, most of the room responded.

“Whether that member died while in conflict, whether they lived through conflict or never served in conflict, they were still serving America,” Riley said. “They were still allowing us to have the strength we need to be the country that we are.”

Lt. Col. Morgan T. Brown, commander of the 1st Battalion, 623rd Field Artillery Regiment based in Glasgow, served as the ceremony’s guest speaker. He attended alongside his daughter, who frequently smiled with excitement as her father was introduced and recognized throughout the program.

“In towns like Glasgow, service is not some distant concept you only see on television. The names engraved on memorials around the state are not strangers to us, they’re part of our communities,” he said. “There are young men and women from towns just like this, ones who left Kentucky farmland, backroads and front porches to fight in places they never heard of.”

Brown painted a picture of average citizens stepping up for extraordinary tasks, whether it was in the forests of Europe, the mountains of Korea, the jungles of Vietnam or the deserts of the Middle East.

“They worked jobs, they played sports, went to church, raised families and worried about the same things we all do,” he said. “Yet when their country called, they answered and when the moment demanded courage, they gave it.”

Memorial Day stands as a solemn reminder of the sacrifice so many have made so that freedoms in the country can be upheld, he said.

“That is one of the most humbling truths about Memorial Day,” he said. “The heroes we honor were not born very different from us. They chose duty over comfort, service over self and sacrifice over safety.”

Brown challenged the audience to set aside time to remember the fallen by speaking their names, caring for the families they left behind and reflecting on what their deaths gave others.

“As Americans, we inherit freedoms every day that many people throughout history never experienced. We speak freely, worship freely, gather freely and live freely because generations before us defended those freedoms with their lives.”

That message of remembrance was echoed earlier in the ceremony by Matt Mutter, head of the Barren County Veterans Association.

“Let us never forget their courage, their sacrifice and the true meaning of this day,” Mutter said. “May we always strive to be a nation worthy of the ultimate price they paid on our behalf.”