National Purple Heart Day ceremony to honor Brevard's wounded, fallen military personnel

Palm Bay resident Jen Johnson remembers her late brother, U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Jeremiah "Joker" Johnson, as "the light of our family" who loved playing jokes, working on motorcycles, boating, camping and fishing.

Jeremiah Johnson, 39, of Springboro, Ohio, was deployed to Niger, West Africa, when he was killed in an October 2017 ambush. He was in an eight-vehicle patrol convoy that was outnumbered by militants of the Islamic State of the Greater Sahara — and he "repeatedly exposed himself to intense enemy fire in order to provide his detachment with covering fire" until he was overtaken, according to his bio in the U.S. Army Chemical Corps Hall of Fame.

Army officials posthumously awarded Johnson a Purple Heart and named him an honorary Green Beret. And last year, they awarded him the Silver Star for heroism on the battlefield. A building was named in his honor last October in Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

“I miss him every day. And I’m proud of him. And I know — I know — from the bottom of my heart that if he had to do it all over again, he would," Jen Johnson said.

Sunday, she will attend a National Purple Heart Day celebration at the Brevard Veterans Memorial Center on Merritt Island. Her brother and 11 other Purple Heart recipients with Space Coast ties will be honored for their sacrifice: Mike Maguire, Sonny Hartwell, Franck Kaiser, Charles Lynchard, Marc Gary, Marley "Buddy" Story, Bruce Schwanda, Ralph Clark, David Cribb, Don Pearsall and Douglas Sykes.

The county's sixth annual Purple Heart event takes place from 2 to 4 p.m. Attendance is by invitation only because of limited seating capacity. For more information, call Donn Weaver, immediate past chair of the Brevard Veterans Council, at 757-871-6576.

Purple Heart Day was first observed in 2014. About 1.8 million Purple Hearts have been awarded to combat-wounded veterans over the years, the Disabled Veterans National Foundation reports.

“It is another opportunity to remember the sacrifice of our soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines — all of our military — when they risked everything," Weaver said.

"Many came back wounded. Some, gravely wounded. And of course, many fell," he said.

During the Purple Heart ceremony, organizers will unveil commemorative pavers bearing the veterans' names for installation in the veterans center plaza. Space Coast Quilts of Valor will also present a quilt to each recipient.

"We go out to their home. And we go sit down with them and visit with them, and talk to them about their Purple Heart experience. And then we come up with this write-up," said Carl Miller, holding a copy of the event program. He commands Space Coast Chapter 453 of the Military Order of the Purple Heart.

"A lot of them don't want to tell their stories. A lot of them are hurt so bad they can't get out of their house to come anyway. And we have a lot of Vietnam vets that have bitter experiences from that period of time — when we were kicked in the face, pretty much," Miller said.

Space Coast Chapter 453 of the Military Order of the Purple Heart boasts 177 members, Miller said. A deep scar shows where his upper left arm was practically severed and left dangling by a February 1969 mortar explosion inside a Vietnam War foxhole while he was serving with the U.S  Marine Corps 1st Battalion, 5th Marines.

The beachside Melbourne resident was also shot three times in the left leg and hip. He spent roughly a year and a half recuperating in hospitals.

Maguire, one of Sunday's honorees, is a West Melbourne World War II veteran who earned a Bronze Star and fought in the Battle of the Bulge. He served with the U.S. Army 87th Infantry Division — and he survived a bullet wound to the head in December 1944 in the Saar River Valley in northeastern France.

During a November 2021 FLORIDA TODAY interview, Maguire recalled seeing "a bright flash in my head" when he was shot.

"I woke up sometime during the day, and it's raining, cold, high 30s and 40s. I was lying in a puddle of blood," he remembered.

Maguire was also hospitalized with severe amoebic dysentery and lost 60 pounds during his European battle tour. Later, he married and raised 13 children, moving to the Space Coast in 1973 and working at Harris Corp. until retiring as a senior vice president in 1986. He served on the Holmes Regional Medical Center and Health First boards of directors.

His father, Michael, fought in the British army during World War I — and he was hospitalized for six months after deadly mustard gas burned his eyes and lungs.

Keith Van Buren works as Veterans Administration casework manager in U.S. Rep. Bill Posey's office in Viera. The Palm Bay resident earned a Purple Heart while serving as a U.S. Army specialist in southeastern Afghanistan — he suffered a traumatic brain injury when his RG-33 light-armored vehicle struck a mine in October 2014.

Van Buren is of a younger generation than most VFW or American Legion members. Last summer, he attended his first Military Order of the Purple Heart meeting.

"I walked in, and I felt that peace. It felt like it was a real club I could be part of. No one treated me different," Van Buren said.

"The thing with the Purple Heart is, it doesn't matter the branch. It doesn't matter the rank. Everyone in that club just is very accepting. Everyone's pretty humble," he said.

Monthly chapter meetings

Space Coast Chapter 453 of the Military Order of the Purple Heart meets the fourth Monday of every month at noon at the Brevard Veterans Memorial Center on Merritt Island, 400 S. Sykes Creek Parkway.

Purple Heart recipients are welcome to attend. For more information, call Miller at 321-312-5466.

"I know for a fact that there's a lot more Purple Heart recipients in Brevard County. Maybe they don't know we're here," Van Buren said.

Rick Neale is the South Brevard Watchdog Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY (for more of his stories, click here.) Contact Neale at 321-242-3638 or rneale@floridatoday.com. Twitter: @RickNeale1

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This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Purple Heart Day ceremony to honor wounded Brevard military personnel