JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Jacksonville National Cemetery held its traditional “Memorial Day Observance “ ceremony Saturday morning to remember those who died while fighting for our country.
There are more than 25,000 service members whose final resting place is the Jacksonville National Cemetery. Thousands of them died in action.
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Mary Richardson visits the cemetery every year. She lost a high school classmate during the Vietnam War in 1964.
They graduated from what was then, Matthew Gilbert Junior Senior High School on Jacksonville’s Eastside.
“You do not forget them. That is strength to you when you say that you remember. You never forget. I don’t care how long it is,” Richardson said.
Tom Meissgeier is a retired Green Beret. While serving in Italy, he lost two people from his unit in a training accident during an airborne jump.
“It was in the summer of 1975, the pictures come up, there is a monument made on their behalf that sits on the drop zone where they died. You just stop and pause for a moment and then you have to move on,” Meissgeier said.
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Taking moments to honor the fallen with a 21-gun salute, the emotional playing of TAPS and laying wreaths.
But retired U-S Army Master Sergeant and current Department of Veterans Affairs Press Secretary, Terrence Hayes, who was the keynote speaker, may have said it best.
“Saying their names as often as we can. They earned that. They deserve that,” Hayes said.