Paul Kitti, retired commander in the U.S. Naval Reserve, delivered Monday’s address. After graduating from Calumet High School in 1971, he served in the U.S. Army military police for four years. Returning to civilian life, he attended Northern Michigan University for bachelor’s and master’s degrees in business administration. In a 30-year career in the electric industry, he eventually became executive director of the Marquette Board of Light and Power.

He joined the U.S. Naval Reserve in 1983, serving in locations such as Guam, Ireland, the Philippines. His military awards include the Navy Commendation Medal, the Navy Achievement Medal, the U.S. Army Good Conduct Medal and the National Defense Service Medal.

Many of Kitti’s relatives and in-laws had served, including two brothers buried at Lake View. His father, Walter Kitti, was an Army military police governmental officer involved in liberating prisoners in Mauthausen, a Nazi concentration camp in Austria. He never talked much about his experiences, Kitti said.

“Later, when I went to military placement with Charlie Company of the famous 793rd Military Battalion, he said ‘Good luck, Paulie. We’re proud of you. Stay safe,'” he said. “He knew the risks. War is dirty business — very dirty — but we fight to preserve our freedoms.”

Garrett Neese/Daily Mining Gazette Paul Kitti, retired commander in the U.S. Naval Reserve, addresses the crowd at the Memorial Day ceremony at Lake View Cemetery in Osceola Township Monday.

Ktti told the story of one of his fellow church congregants — a German-born veteran who earned a Purple Heart after a German sniper shot him during World War II.

“That bullet indiscriminately traveling at 2,500 feet per second … didn’t know that his native tongue was German, didn’t know where his family was from,” he said. “But that bullet did know his nationality. Herbert was a proud American living under the stars and stripes as a price all our warriors stand up to on paper and pay for every day in peace or in war.”

Even outside wartime, those in the military put their lives on the line every day. Kitti listed a number of domestic and international fatalities, including a Wisconsin-based Air Force fighter pilot who crashed in the Hiawatha National Forest last year during a training exercise.

“So many of you will understand from my experiences in the military and from what others have told me: We arrived as strangers but we left as brothers and sisters,” he said. “That bond is never-ending. So all of these men and women lying here at the cemetery speak out and cry out from their graves that peace and freedom is worth fighting and dying for, but it comes at a price.”

Afterward, Lloyd Owens of Mohawk knelt by the grave of Dennis Antilla, a friend and fellow veteran who served in Vietnam. He patted the grave marker before standing up.

Garrett Neese/Daily Mining Gazette Members of the Calumet High School Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps (JROTC) color guard stand at attention during Monday’s Memorial day ceremony.

“I’m a veteran, and I believe in freedom,” he said. “I believe in everything that we stand for. So many people in this world don’t know what it means to walk around and what we are able to do.”

Garrett Neese/Daily Mining Gazette At the end of Monday’s Memorial Day ceremony, a firing detail from the National Guard salutes military personnel who died in service.

Garrett Neese/Daily Mining Gazette Attendees listen to the closing benediction at the Memorial Day ceremony at Lake View Cemetery Monday.