THE SAUGUS ADVOCATE – FriDAy, MAy 30, 2025 Page 9 A Memorial Day remembrance Long departed, but not forgotten; a soldier and a sailor who sacrificed their lives in World War ii honored with flowers By Mark E. Vogler R obert Inman and his wife Carol drove down from Lynnfield last Saturday morning to put a pot of geraniums on two grave markers in the Veterans Lot at Riverside Cemetery. Inman, a 1966 Saugus High School graduate, has continued his family’s tradition of putting Memorial Day flowers on the marker for his uncle – William N. McLeod, 23, a radioman 3rd class, who died near the Philippines on June 29, 1945. “There’s nobody there,” Inman said, pointing at the marker, where he placed the geranium. “He died on a ship, so they buried him at sea during World War II,” he said. Carol Inman placed the second geranium plant on the grave marker on the left of McLeod – for PFC Alden F. Moore, an 18-year-old Marine who died on April 10, 1944, in the Battle of Peleliu in the Pacific. “It always bothered me that there were never any flowers on the grave [of PFC Moore],” Inman recalled of his childhood days to visit the cemetery. “So, I’ve been putting the flowers on his grave for 53 years,” he said. Down at Veterans Park, Sarah Batchelder, her husband Mark Parker and their seven-year-old daughter Scarlet Batchelder, a first grader at the Early Veterans Learning Center, waited for the start of last Saturday morning’s Memorial Day weekend parade. DECORATING THEIR GRAVES: For the past half century, Robert Inman said, he’s been bringing two pots of geraniums to Riverside Cemetery: one for his late uncle who died at sea in World War II; the other for a Marine who never got flowers on his grave. (Saugus Advocate Photo by Mark E. Vogler) WAITING FOR THE PARADE: Sarah Batchelder, her husband Mark Parker and their seven-year-old daughter Scarlet Batchelder. (Saugus Advocate Photo by Mark E. Vogler) Batchelder said she comes to the parade each year out of respect for the close friend – a 19-year-old Army veteran who died in a hit-and-run motorcycle accident during the Memorial Day holiday weekend in 2011. “It’s a hard holiday for us,” Batchelder said, referring to Navy Radioman 3rd class William N. McLeod (Courtesy Photo to The Saugus Advocate) UNCLE JOHN | FROM PAGE 6 One versions — Springfields and Enfields. Most of the soldiers did not even know how to load a clip; they thought the rifle took one bullet at a time. I showed them how to put five bullets in, and for each shot you had to lift the bolt, drive it forward and shoot and lift the bolt to eject. The mortar squad is supposed to be back behind the guys in front with the rifles, and our job was to fire over their heads. Because of the heavy loss of our men, we all had to become riflemen. My buddy Ray got shot and with the help of another soldier, we dragged him into the hedgerow. He had pieces of steel sticking out of his wrist and some in his back. We gave him first aid as best we could and he begged me to write to his wife. During the rest of my combat I never knew whether he lived or died. I was hit in the head and as I tried to get down low, I passed out. The warm blood came pouring down my face and I came to. Another soldier helped point me in the direction of the aid station, but I could not find it. I turned around and started walking up a hill that the Germans held 18 miles in. They saw my silhouette and startUNCLE JOHN | SEE PAGE 19 the death of SPC Christopher Joseph Wheeler, formerly of Gloucester, who died from injuries he received in the crash that took place in Colorado. “We graduated together from North Shore Tech in Middleton,” Batchelder said. “I’ll never forget that night,” she said.
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