An annual Memorial Day ceremony
and wreath presentation draws more than 50 people to the Orange County Courthouse.
“We pause today to remember those who have given the ultimate sacrifice. There is a cost to freedom, and today we’re acknowledging that cost.” U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Jack Stultz (Ret.)
Mike Pierce didn’t know his childhood friend Robert Wilhoit had become a U.S. Marine until he learned Wilhoit was killed overseas while serving in the Vietnam War.
Pierce, a Navy veteran himself, has spent every Memorial Day for the past 47 years cherishing his memories of Wilhoit, whom he first came to know when they were in third grade together in Jacksonville.
“I guess you really never get over it,” he said, taking a breath to compose himself, tears forming in his eyes. “You still think about it.”
Pierce was one of more than 50 people to attend Orange County’s annual War Memorial Wreath Presentation & Commemoration Ceremony on Monday at the Orange County Courthouse.
Pierce discovered in 1969 that Wilhoit died the year before when the vehicle he was driving drove over a land mine. Wilhoit was only 20 years old.
Many in the crowd had similar stories of loss.
Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs started crying as she remembered U.S. Army 2nd Lt. Mike McGahan, an Olympia High School graduate who died in 2010.
McGahan was Jacobs’ son’s best friend. He died in Afghanistan, shot by insurgents as his platoon was investigating a report of an unmanned aircraft. He was 23. Jacobs said the death of McGahan weighed heavily on her because he joined the Army after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
She said he felt a sense of patriotism and wanted to protect the country.
“It’s not the same as losing a loved one,” Jacobs said. “But it’s the closest thing that we’ve experienced.”
Retired U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Jack Stultz was the ceremony’s guest speaker. He reminded people why they gather together the last Monday of May, saying the first Memorial Day celebrations could be traced back to the Civil War.
“We pause today to remember those who have given the ultimate sacrifice,” he said. “There is a cost to freedom, and today we’re acknowledging that cost.”
Stultz, commanding general of the U.S. Army Reserve Com-
mand from 2006 to 2012, then offered his own tragic tale of a young life ended too soon.
When stationed in Iraq in April 2004, he was responsible for transportation operations. As part of his routine, Stultz spent every morning greeting soldiers before they headed out with their convoys.
On one particular morning, Stultz met U.S. Army Lt. Robert Henderson, who was part of a unit from the Kentucky National Guard.
Henderson and Stultz bonded over a mutual connection to Lowe’s. Henderson had worked there back at home, and Stultz’s father-in-law retired from a career with the company.
Before departing with his fellow soldiers, the 33-year-old asked Stultz if there was a chance he could get home in June to see the birth of his first son. Stultz said he would do what he could to make that happen.
“Twenty-four hours later, I got the call,” said Stultz with a slight break in his voice, adding Henderson died when his unit was ambushed. “So Robert never got to see his son, and his son never got to see his dad.”
Remembering the tragic manner in which service men and women died is only one way to honor them, said Andrew Ewasko, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran and vice chair of the Orlando Mayor’s Veterans Advisory Council. Talking about the good times is just as important, he said.
“And although it’s been tough at times, the memories I choose to keep of them are the good ones,” he said. “As a veteran of war, it’s on our shoulders to let everyone know what this day means to us.”