USMC veteran recalls service ahead of Memorial Day event

Edward Durand, who served in the United States Marine Corps from 1985 to 2005 as an air crewman, salutes by the flag concourse at the Ocala-Marion County Veterans Memorial Park in Ocala, Fla. on Monday, May 22, 2023. [Bruce Ackerman/Ocala Gazette] 2023.

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Posted May 28, 2023 | By Andy Fillmore, andy@ocalagazette.com

Edward Durand, a 20-year U.S. Marine Corps veteran whose family’s service to country spans four generations, will be thinking of his fallen comrades on Memorial Day.

“I’ll be paying respects to the friends I lost during my service,” Durand said.

Durand plans to attend the Memorial Day ceremonies at the Ocala/Marion County Veterans Memorial Park, which will begin at 10 a.m. on Monday, May 29.

“Memorial Day is not about barbecues,” Durand said.

He noted that the observation of Memorial Day began as Decoration Day.

The article “How ‘Decoration Day’ became Memorial Day” at Military. com states the first official Decoration Day observance was held May 30, 1868, at Arlington National Cemetery.

“May 30 was a day touted by the Grand Army of the Republic, an association of Union Civil War veterans, as an official day of remembrance for people across the country. The idea was to honor the war’s dead by decorating the graves of Union soldiers,” the article states. It indicates the observance was accepted by all former Union states by 1890 and became known as Memorial Day to “honor all fallen American troops.”

The 1968 Uniform Monday Holiday Act specified Memorial Day would be held on Monday and “codified the name Memorial Day into law,” according to the article.

Durand’s family history is steeped in military service. His maternal grandfather, Glen Paulich, served in WWII and parachuted into Normandy on D-Day. His father, Edward Gene Durand, a career Air Force veteran, served two tours in the Vietnam War. He died in 1995 at age 49 from non-service-related causes.

“I have a flag which flew over the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C., in honor of my father,” Edward Durand said.

Durand’s brother, Joseph Durand, served 12 years in the Marine Corps. Durand’s son, Joey, is in the Marine Corps and stationed at Camp Pendleton, California. A plaque with a photograph of the two, both in their Marine uniforms, is labeled “Like Father, Like Son.”

Edward Durand, 55, was born in 1967 while his father was deployed at Royal Air Force Base Alconbury in England. He joined the Marine Corps in 1985 at age 17, while the family lived in Rancho Palos Verdes, on a special program, and was in boot camp in California “while the rest of my class was walking across the stage in commencement ceremonies.”

He served mostly as an air crewman in CH-46 Boeing dual rotor helicopters, which can carry 25 combat ready troops or supplies, and logged more than 3,700 hours in the aircraft on various missions. His deployments include three Western Pacific tours in 1987 and 1989, to areas including Southeast Asia and Thailand.

On a third Western Pacific tour in 1991, Durand became involved in the Gulf War, flying support operations. He was awarded his first National Defense Medal for his service in the Gulf War as well as a decoration from the government of Kuwait. In 1994, he again was involved in operations in the Persian Gulf when Saddam Hussein began to gather forces.

“We operated 24 helicopters 24/7 to make it appear like we had many more aircraft than we actually did,” he said.

In 1996, he made another Western Pacific tour and then was assigned to Marine Corps Air Station El Toro. After that, he, was transferred to the Eastern U.S. and served on Marine One from 1997 to 1999, transporting President Bill Clinton. In 2002, Durand served a six-month tour in Iraq during Operation Enduring Freedom and earned his second National Defense Medal. He later was involved in training combat troops and retired as a staff sergeant in December of 2005.

“It was the best 20 years of my life. I’d do it all over again,” he said.

Durand and his wife, Jennifer Durand, both retired, he in 2017 and she in 2020, from the California Department of Social Services. They sold their home in 2021 and then traveled nationwide for a year in recreational vehicle before they settled into a house in Anthony, just north of Ocala.

Todd Belknap, of Ocala, served on the same ship, U.S.S. Belleau Woods, as Durand, in 1987. Although the two were not acquainted at the time, both are now Ocala/Marion County Veterans Park volunteers. Belknap is marketing and communications director for the Friends of the Marion County Veterans Park Foundation and Durand is on the foundation board.

To learn more about the foundation, go to marionvetpark.com

 

IF YOU GO

WHAT: Memorial Day Remembrance Program

WHEN: 10 a.m., Monday, May 29

WHERE: Ocala/Marion County Veterans Memorial Park, 2602 SE Fort King St., Ocala

WHO: Marion County Veterans Services, (352) 671-8422