MARIETTA — More than 1,000 people turned out at the Marietta National Cemetery to pay tribute to those who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country.

Among them was Derika Zink of Acworth, who wanted to make sure her son, John, who will mark his first birthday this month, attended his first Memorial Day celebration.

"I'm sure that he's going to be in the service someday, because most of his family has been in the service, and they're going to give him a heck of a time if he doesn't join," Zink said of her son.

With an American flag planted in front of each of the tombstones in the cemetery, the noontime crowd sang the National Anthem and God Bless America, as salutes were given by the Elias Moon Camp No. 2 Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War and by the U.S. Army Garrison Honor Guard at Fort McPherson.

Also Monday, 13 members of the 94th Security Forces Squadron at Dobbins Air Reserve Base returned home after a four-month deployment with Operation Enduring Freedom where they provided base security to Iraq's Kirkuk Regional.

At the National Cemetery, retired Army Lt. Gen. Russel Honore, who led the Department of Defense response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, recalled being approached at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson Airport by an elderly woman who thanked him for his service.

"She said, 'I want to thank you.' I said, 'You know what, ma'am? The best way you can thank me is to go home and encourage that grandchild of yours to serve his country, preferably in uniform." Honore said.

The grandmother told him her grandson was intent on obtaining a master's degree in business so he could become a millionaire by age 30.

"I said, 'well who's going to defend him?'" Honore said.

"It's just a glimpse of the attitude today because it brings to mind a point that our Army, Marines, Air Force, Navy, Coast Guard, all our service are at war, but sometimes when you go around this country it's apparent the country is not at war," he said.

He called on citizens to honor the sacrifices of those "who have given their very last measure for this country, those who gave everything from generation to generation to keep this country free. Let us not forget their sacrifice."

When he's asked about the U.S. military, Honore says it's in good shape compared to the country's first army under George Washington, commander during the Revolutionary War, where troops where neither properly trained nor equipped to fight the British, who then were the most powerful army in the world.

"Many of them were not free, some of them were indentured, some of them were slaves, but they fought for the words of the Declaration of Independence that say we would all be free. They wrote a check over 230-some years ago that each generation must cash - and that is to leave America free for the next generation," Honore said.

Former Gov. Roy Barnes said after the program that Honore was correct to single out Memorial Day as the most important federal holiday of the year.

"We owe a debt of gratitude for the freedom that we have, all of us out here running for office right now. We wouldn't have that if it were not for these folks that are laying in the ground never to speak again," Barnes said.

State Rep. Judy Manning (R-Marietta) said she always gets goose bumps on Memorial Day from the pride she takes in her country. State Rep. Sharon Cooper (R-east Cobb) said she was going to cry, thinking back to her late father, W.S. Meyer, who was wounded during World War II in Germany. Cooper urged today's youth to talk to their relatives who served before it was too late.

"Talk to the people who served, find out specifics. Daddy didn't like to talk about the war, and I would have liked to have known more about what actually happened on the day he was wounded, what was his mission. Now he's gone, and it's too late to do it, and I'm sorry for that," Cooper said.

Monday's program was sponsored by the National Memorial Day Association of Georgia and the Avenue of Flags, founded in 1946.