We asked Marion County veterans: What does Memorial Day mean to you? Here's what they said

Remembrances, prayers and appreciation for those who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country. That's how several local veterans and their families described the meaning of Memorial Day.

Jason White of Ocala, a Marine Corps combat veteran of two deployments to the Iraq War, serves as the director of the Florida chapter of the Texas-based Birdwell Foundation. The nationwide organization provides life-saving support services including counseling, mentoring and suicide prevention programs for thousands of veterans and first responders in crisis with PTSD and MST (military sexual trauma), according to birdwellfoundation.org.

“Memorial Day... is the time when I reflect on my own past experiences in the military (and) fellow brothers and sisters that (I have) lost not only from the war but from suicide," White wrote, in part, in an email.

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The history of Memorial Day

According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs website, va.gov, the roots of Memorial Day trace back to May 5, 1868, when the Union Veterans organization, the Grand Army of the Republic, set "Decoration Day" as "a time to decorate the graves of the war dead with flowers."

Maj. Gen. John A. Logan fixed the date as May 30. The first large observance was held at Arlington National Cemetery, the website states.

Following World War I, the memorials were enlarged to include those Americans who have died in all wars. Memorial Day was made a national holiday in 1971, the VA website states.

According to online VA records, nearly 42 million have served in the U.S. military during wartime and 651,031 service members died in battle and 308,800 died "in theatre" from 1775 to 1991.

Dr. Knapp says: Take a few minutes to reflect

Mark Knapp served in the U.S. Navy from 1979 to 1982 and worked as a medical doctor at VA hospitals and clinics from 1976 to 1982 and 2005 to 2016, including service as chief medical officer at the Ocala VA clinic in the Cascades.

"My thoughts (on Memorial Day) are directed towards our disabled military veterans and those that paid the ultimate sacrifice for our freedoms," Knapp stated in an email.

"There is tremendous support in Marion County for our veterans ...I now worry with the small percentage of Americans that have served in the military, that support, nationally, for our armed forces is being overlooked and pushed aside.

"I would like everyone to take some time to recognize in their own way, the sacrifices of our veterans and families and acknowledge that our freedom and way of life exists only because of the men and women that have fought to protect it in the past and are protecting it in the present," Knapp wrote.

Morrey Deen: a time to remember

Former City of Ocala police chief and retired Army major Morrey Deen will speak on Memorial Day at Veterans of Foreign Wars Al Krietemeyer Memorial Post 284 in Belleview.

“(The Deen Family) through many generations has a long proud history and heritage of serving our nation in the armed forces of the United States,” he stated in an email. “I am likewise pleased and proud of the public support of Memorial Day by citizens attending events, flying their American flag or wearing hats or shirts that honor our veterans!

“(Freedom) never has been free and it will never be free,” Deen wrote.

Vietnam War veteran Mike McVicker said “a lot of loss” when asked his thoughts about Memorial Day.

Residents at the VFW Veterans Village in Fort McCoy speak out

Several residents of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Veterans Village in Fort McCoy, a residential facility for VFW and auxiliary members with overseas deployment service, shared their thoughts about Memorial Day.

Raymond Savore, 95, was drafted in 1943 and served in the Third Army in Europe during World War II.

He was assigned to drive an M-3A1 tank (he still recalls the military designation) in the 22nd Tank Battalion, 11th Armored Division in the Battle of the Bulge around Bastogne.

He said on Memorial Day his thoughts will turn to the fallen and "good friends" lost.

Frank Fleming, 91, a Veterans Village resident, served in the Army in the Korean War. He said Memorial Day is "in memory of" veterans. Fellow resident Frank Felker, 75, who served in the Navy in the mid-1960s, said Memorial Day is a "day of remembrance not a holiday.”

Veterans Village resident John Leidig served on the ballistic missile submarine USS Henry Clay (SSVN 625) during his Navy service from 1980 to 2001. Crews served 96-day patrols on the subs, known as "boomers."

Leidig said on Memorial Day he will also remember soldiers who are listed as Missing In Action, including Ronald Galvin, lost during the Vietnam War. Leidig wears an MIA bracelet bearing Galvin’s name.

Don Larsson, 80, a resident of the Veterans Village, served in the Navy in the mid-1960s and was assigned to fly aboard specially equipped P-3A Orion aircraft on missions looking for Russian submarines around Alaska.

He once accompanied a chaplain to inform a family of the death of a member in another P-3A airplane that crashed in Newfoundland in 1965.

"(The family member) said 'we loved him' (but) we felt what he was doing was important,'" Larsson said.

"It was the worst thing I ever had to do. You say it will be alright (but) it won’t be alright," he said.

Jimmy Thomas Bryant, 91, a resident, said "family and loved ones don't forget" the sacrifices of veterans, while resident Helen Shearin and her husband, Navy veteran John Shearin, will observe what Helen Shearin called "a day of remembrance."

She said she would remember her father who was a farmer and produced food to support the country during wartime and her son and other family members who served in the military.

"(We should) bow our heads (and) be thankful for people who helped the country in time of war," Helen Shearin said.

In an open letter for Memorial Day events at the facility, Sharon Beam, VFW Veterans Village Resident coordinator, wrote about her father, U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Glen Rountree, who died in January 1969 at age 29, when Beam was 4, as a result of injuries suffered in the Vietnam War while transporting an AWOL soldier.

“I know you were very brave and wanted to give our family the best life. You, like so many countless others paid the ultimate sacrifice for your country,” she wrote in part.

IF YOU GO

What: Memorial Day service

When, Monday, May 30, 10 a.m.

Where: Ocala-Marion County Veterans Memorial Park, 2601 SE Fort King St., Ocala.

This article originally appeared on Ocala Star-Banner: Ocala, Florida will host Memorial Day ceremony