Jacksonville crowd marks Memorial Day at veterans wall

May 27--Two Coast Guard rescue helicopters were supposed to fly over Jacksonville's annual Memorial Day Observance on Monday, but only one helicopter raced overhead as a crowd of about 2,200 people finished singing the last verse of "The Star Spangled Banner."

The other helicopter and its crew couldn't make the trip from Coast Guard Air Station Savannah because they were off on a search and rescue mission.

That mix of remembrance and ongoing service typified the Jacksonville ceremony, one of several Memorial Day events that took place across Northeast Florida.

Jacksonville observed the addition of four more names to the almost 1,700 names on the Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Wall near TIAA Bank Field. The black granite wall contains names of those killed during duty, going back to World War I, from all branches of the military.

Despite the heat that already was rising fast during the morning ceremony, the event drew a large gathering at the site of the wall and its eternal flame. Attendees ranged in age from two veterans of the D-Day invasion to toddlers whose mothers covered their ears during the three-volley salute.

"You can see what I see here -- the support this community has for the military is just unbelievable," City Council President Aaron Bowman, who settled in Jacksonville after he retired as a captain in the Navy, told the crowd.

Keynote speaker Gen. Craig McKinley, who retired from the U.S. Air Force and served as the 26th chief of the National Guard Bureau, told the crowd the United States has entered into an era of competition among the world's "great powers."

He said "wars of national existence happen infrequently, thank God, but if we're ever called upon again, we need to have young men and women like we saw here today in our color guard stand up, take the call to duty and serve."

McKinley, a Ponte Vedra resident, said Memorial Day is a time to thank all who have served, especially those who gave the "last full measure of devotion."

"Let's remember the wife who lost her husband, or the husband who lost his wife," McKinley said. "Let us remember the mother and father who lost their child. Let us remember the child who lost a parent. Let us remember to be grateful, to never take our freedom for granted."

The event recognized service members with wreaths in memory of the most recently added names to the veterans memorial wall: Christopher A. Reed of the Navy, Jimmie Randolph of the Air Force, Brittney N. Mitchell of the Army, and George W. Woods of the Marine Corps.

The Memorial Day service recognized veterans who took part in D-Day, which will mark its 75th anniversary on June, as well as Gold Star families of the fallen.

The event also presented service wreaths for the Army, the Marine Corps, the Navy, the Air Force, the Coast Guard and the Merchant Marine.

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