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Arlington s Memorial Day ceremony will pay tribute to an active duty soldier who was killed in a helicopter crash last fall. (Jenna Fisher/Patch)
ARLINGTON, MA Memorial Day is a holiday that people in Arlington and across America look forward to every year as the start of summer.
But it also gives the country a chance to look back, as the final Monday in May is a day to remember all American lives lost during military service.
Here are five things to know about the history of Memorial Day:
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1. It Was Originally Called Decoration Day: Remembering veterans who died while in military service in late May dates back to 1868, when Gen. John A. Logan called for a day of remembrance to honor the Northern lives lost amid battle during the Civil War that had ended just a few years earlier, according to History.com. Logan called it Decoration Day, which it was known as for several years. As time passed, more and more people called it Memorial Day, History.com reporte
By SLOBODAN LEKIC, JOHN VANDIVER AND KARIN ZEITVOGEL | STARS AND STRIPES Published: January 2, 2021 Twelve service members died on overseas deployments to designated combat zones in Africa, Kosovo and the Arabian peninsula region, including waterways, in 2020. One other soldier was killed in a terrorist attack in Kenya, which is not a designated combat zone. The most deadly of the incidents was a helicopter crash in the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt in November, in which five American troops died and one was injured. The Americans were part of an international peacekeeping force that monitors compliance with the 1979 Israeli-Egyptian peace accord. Henry J. Mayfield Jr.