Friends and family members of fallen veterans gathered in Riverview on a chilly Sunday morning last week to mark the passing of their loved ones with salutes, speeches, tears and hugs.
Hosted by American Legion Alafia Post 148, the Field of Honor ceremony recalls U.S. troops who have died in the last three months in Iraq and Afghanistan, and is held four times a year. The Jan. 10 ceremony at Veterans Memorial Park Museum on U.S. 301 will be the last this year as the U.S. winds down its military presence in Afghanistan and attempts to do the same in Iraq.
Dave Braun has been there from the start.
Prompted in 2005 by a friend who owned a flag store and who wanted to honor members of the military who died serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, Braun brought the idea to the county veteran leaders. They endorsed the plan, and since then more than 6,200 flags have memorialized military personnel who have given the ultimate sacrifice. Of those, 65 were from Hillsborough County.
Braun said, “We honor fallen soldiers not just from Hillsborough County but from all over the U.S. If we have someone who died from California, we will read out their name and a volunteer will place a flag for them.” Braun is co-chairman of the Veterans Memorial Park Museum Committee.
“We are here to honor all the participants in the global war on terror who have sacrificed their lives to bring us our freedoms,” said Susie Martinez, a member of the Riverview chapter of the American Legion Riders who was among the volunteers who placed a flag for a fallen soldier she did not know.
Braun, a U.S. Army veteran who served two years in Vietnam, is working to make sure the derision and indifference that greeted his generation’s return from war “never happens again. We will be in America’s face; don’t ever do that to our soldiers ever again.”
“We don’t want people to forget, just as we don’t forget Pearl Harbor and Vietnam,” said Walt Raysick, master of ceremonies for the event. “It’s very easy for people to forget. Every soldier that goes to war is protecting freedom, and without that we wouldn’t be able to have these kinds of events,” said Raysick, a trustee and past president of the Veterans Council of Hillsborough County.
The names of 11 U.S. servicemen killed in the last three months were read during the event with flags placed in their honor at the semicircular memorial.
The American Gold Star Mothers also gave out specially designed flags to four military families who had lost a loved one.
U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Daniel Ferguson, 39, of Mulberry, died during a shooting at Fort Hood, Texas in April 2014. His mother, Barbara Ferguson, couldn’t hold back her tears as she was presented with a flag.
“It means that people don’t forget,” Ferguson said.
Founded in 1928, American Gold Star Mothers Inc. is a nondenominational, nonprofit and nonpolitical organization for mothers whose children have died while in military service, or died as a result of that service or are missing in action. The group’s Tampa Bay chapter is the largest of its seven Florida chapters, according to Hillsborough County Veterans Affairs.
With more than 94,000 veterans, Hillsborough County has the fourth-largest veteran population in Florida. Hillsborough County Veterans Affairs assists an average of 30,000 clients each year through personal and telephone interviews, outreach, community presentations, in-home visits, and correspondence.
Mike O’Dell, president of the Veterans Council of Hillsborough County, was also on hand to pay his respects to the fallen. He said, “It’s important that people come out and show their respect for the freedoms that they have and the ability to do anything they want to do because these soldiers defend our country and the right to those freedoms.”