Hattiesburg Gold Star family, Tupelo POW will be honored at national Memorial Day concert
In April 2010, Patricia Davis and her husband Tony Davis got some news no parent ever wants to hear. Their son, Army Sgt. Anthony Magee was dead.
The 29-year-old from Hattiesburg was killed when his unit was ambushed in Iskandariyah, Iraq, during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Magee was serving his second tour in Iraq when he was hit in the head with shrapnel. Other soldiers in his unit carried him to safety and bandaged his wounds with the shirts off their backs. Despite their efforts to save him, Magee later died at a hospital in Germany.
The Davises thought their son had been forgotten after 13 years, so were surprised when the annual PBS National Memorial Day concert organizers reached out to them, wanting to tell Magee's story.
"You would think people would realize he was a human being, but nobody says anything anymore," Tony Davis said.
They felt like their son, who had made the ultimate sacrifice, had been forgotten.
"That's all you can give," Tony Davis said. "That's all you've got."
A camera crew from the concert organizers came to Hattiesburg to talk with the Magee-Davis family about their loss for a segment that will air during the televised program.
"It was awesome to see my children get a chance to talk about their brother," Tony Davis said. "It was quite an honor. I think everybody is going to enjoy it. They're going to laugh a little, cry a little bit and get to see a snippet of who Anthony is.
"We are so excited."
The program will feature three generations of Anthony Magee's family, including his parents, siblings and Magee's son, Kameron, who was just 5 years old when his father was killed.
Magee is one of two Mississippians who will be honored during the 34th annual concert, which will begin at 7 p.m. Sunday on Mississippi Public Broadcasting and other PBS stations. The concert also will be livestreamed on YouTube and at pbs.org/national-memorial-day-concert.
War on Terror: 7 years after son died at war, Tony and Patricia Davis feel he has been 'forgotten'
He was a POW in Hanoi Hilton: How Mississippi man's 'tap code' helped them survive
The other Mississippi honoree is 94-year-old Carlyle "Smitty" Harris of Tupelo, who was a prisoner in the Vietnam War and retired as a colonel from the Air Force. He was taken prisoner in April 1965, when his plane was shot down.
Harris spent nearly eight years at the Hoa Lo prison, better known as the Hanoi Hilton, where U.S. soldiers, including the late Sen. John McCain, were starved and tortured during the war.
This year's concert will commemorate the 50th anniversary of the return of U.S. soldiers such as Harris, who were held prisoner during the war in Vietnam.
More than 58,000 Americans lost their lives in the Vietnam War. Nearly 1,600 remain missing and unaccounted for from the war.
Another segment of the show will commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Korean War Armistice in honor of the more than 36,000 Americans who lost their lives and the many veterans who fought in that war and were able to return home to their families.
There also will be a World War II remembrance for the 16 million Americans in uniform who served, including the more than 400,000 who died and hundreds of thousands who were wounded.
Concert hosts Joe Mantegna and Gary Sinise will lead the program, which will include appearances by Trace Adkins, S. Epatha Merkerson, John Slattery, Dulé Hill, Yolanda Adams, Mary McCormack, Jo Dee Messina, The War And Treaty, Chosen Jacobs, Phillip Phillips, Megan Hilty and the National Symphony Orchestra.
The show will be broadcast live from the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol, celebrating the nation's men and women in uniform and their families.
“We are proud to continue this national tradition on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol that brings us together as one family of Americans to support our heroes and remember the more than one million Americans who have given their lives for our country since the dawn of the republic,” Capital Concerts Executive Producer Michael Colbert said in a news release.
Hattiesburg area Memorial Day events
10 a.m. Friday: The Mississippi Armed Forces Museum will hold its annual program at the Camp Shelby-based facility.
8 a.m. Monday: The Commiskey-Wheat Marines Detachment 1073 will honor Medal of Honor recipients Henry Commiskey, Jack Lucas and Roy Wheat at Highland Cemetery, where Lucas and Commiskey are buried. Wheat is buried in Eastabuchie Cemetery.
10 a.m. Monday: The city of Hattiesburg's 40th annual Memorial Day program will be at Veterans Memorial Park in downtown Hattiesburg.
10 a.m. Monday: The Laurel Veterans Memorial Museum will hold a time of remembrance for those who made the ultimate sacrifice.
Do you have a story to share? Contact Lici Beveridge at lbeveridge@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @licibev or Facebook at facebook.com/licibeveridge.
This article originally appeared on Hattiesburg American: Hattiesburg, Tupelo families will be honored at Memorial Day concert
