Some stones have lost their meaning; it is our job to see that others do not.

That’s the message that Col. (Ret.) Clyde Northrop delivered at the annual Memorial Day ceremony Saturday morning in Andalusia.

South of Long, he said, is the awesome sight of Stonehenge.

“A horseshoe formation of 30 huge upright stones, weighing up to 50 tons each, completed around 1500 B.C>; an engineering feat that would challenge modern technology,” he said.

“No one knows who built Stonehenge nor what it means. The stones remain, but the meaning is lost.”

Stones representing each of the 12 tribes of Israel were placed in a heap at Gilgal, he said. They have long since been scattered.

“The stones are gone, but the meaning remains,” he said.

Similarly, there are more than 2.5 million head stones marking the graves of American veterans.

“About 125,000 of them are on foreign soil,” he said, adding that the headstones speak of courage, duty, honor, loyalty and sacrifice.

“We must teach the meaning of the stones in relation to our nation and to freedom,” he said. “And we must teach the meaning of the stones in relation to our faith in God.”

Northrop, who was a chaplain, attributed the idea for his message to Chaplain Lamar Hunt.