For 134 years, American military men and women who have made the ultimate sacrifice of their lives to protect the American way of life have been recognized and honored annually at Memorial Day ceremonies held at Jerusalem Western Salisbury Church, along Devonshire Road in the western portion of Salisbury Township.

On a sunny and pleasant Memorial Day, May 29, dozens of area residents gathered in the church cemetery to pay their respects to America’s war dead.

Dressed in colonial garb, Fife Major Karen El-Chaar, of Allentown and Drum Major Joshua Fink, of Lower Macungie Township, led flag bearers and celebrants to the church’s war memorial, across Devonshire Road, opposite the church, for the noontime ceremony.

Vocalist Evelyn Stewart, of Bethlehem, opened the ceremony singing two verses of the country’s national anthem, then a tearful rendition of the “Battle Hymn of the Republic.”

The salute to the deceased veterans of all wars were honored by a playing of the military “Tattoo” by bugler Richard Shankweiler, of Allentown, with a repeat echo by bugler Larry Kichline, of Salisbury Township. Originating in the 1600s, the “Tattoo” was a general bugle call used to notify soldiers to assemble for the final roll call of the day.

Shankweiler and Kichline also played taps, the traditional bugle call honoring deceased veterans.

Fink, historian and chairman of the church’s Memorial Day Committee, presented a short essay depicting the history of Memorial Day ceremonies through the years throughout the country. He ended with a recitation of Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.

The program ended with a procession around the cemetery led by the church’s honor guard and the fife and drum majors.

Small American flags dotted headstones across the cemetery, placed by the church at the resting place of the more than 400 military veterans buried there.

One Salisbury resident, leaving the ceremony with her two youngsters, said the ceremony was a good civic and patriotic lesson for her family.

“I especially liked the historical perspective (presented by Fink). I learned something new myself,” she said.

The church’s history dates back to its first log church built in 1741 atop a hill along the Little Lehigh Creek. A second church was erected in 1769, with the cornerstone for the current structure laid in 1819.