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American Morning

Memorial Day Ceremonies Honor American Veterans

Aired May 28, 2001 - 11:54   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Americans of all ages are taking time out on this Memorial Day to remember the men and women in the military who gave their lives for their country.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Ceremonies have been taking place across the country. In Los Angeles, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts were among those paying tribute to the war dead.

Here's a closer look:

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MURRAY CODMAN, WORLD WAR II VETERAN: Memorial Day is of course -- it brings back all the memory.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just as the flag is made up of hundreds of threads and stitches, today we band together as Scouts, some 4,000 strong, to decorate over 80,000 gravesites.

MURRAY CODMAN, WORLD WAR II VETERAN: Yes, I served with the 8th Air Force, 447 Bomb Group, which was stationed in a little village of Rattlesden, England. I did 35 missions, mainly over Germany.

My first one was to Berlin, so they wanted to get me started properly. I'll you, the last five was the hardest, because you could see a possibility of getting out alive. And, I'll tell you, 8th Air Force was 30,000 killed, 38,000 either wounded or POWs.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: As you bend down to place a flag by a white headstone and just barely glance up, you can see thousands and thousands of white dots that gently flow over the many rolling hills, each dot representing someone who gave their life to unlock the doors of freedom.

CODMAN: I hope they can appreciate being in peace.

KATIE ROSARIO, GIRL SCOUT: Memorial Day is, like, mostly about respecting the people that gave us freedom and how they fought for us in the wars.

NICK VRDOLJAK, BOY SCOUT: A lot of other countries, like China, don't have a democracy. And we have a lot of rights that a lot of other people don't have.

CODMAN: It's nice to know that people are thinking of the veterans.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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