Remembering the fallen

PANAMA CITY BEACH — One would be hard pressed to find a ceremonial activity veterans didn’t participate in Monday to honor the fallen at a Memorial Day ceremony at Kent Forest Lawn Cemetery.

Several hundred people attended the event, sitting in bleachers, under tents and shade trees on the cemetery grounds. The event was punctuated by guest speakers, presentations and performances to honor service members who died defending the nation.

The patriotic activities included everything from the playing of “Taps” by Stewart Corbin, to a booming 21-gun salute by the Gulf State Guards, to a flyover by Tyndall Air Force Base’s 325th Fighter Wing, as American flags lined 23rd Street.

The guest speaker, Douglas W. Huggan, is commanding officer of Naval Support Activity Panama City.

“As Abraham Lincoln stated more than 100 years ago, it is all together fitting and proper that we should do this,” Huggan said. “He went on to say, ‘The world can never forget what they did.’ It is for us, the living, to be dedicated to the unfinished work of these heroes.”

Huggan praised the community for its military support.

“I also want to thank Bay County for being one of the country’s most supportive communities, not only to the active-duty veterans but all these fallen heroes today,” Huggan said. “What a great community to serve in. These heroes fought for values that they believed in — freedom. We as beneficiaries of this hard fought freedom need to continue these values and thank these heroes for serving for us.”

Huggan said the flags on Memorial Day are at half-staff position until noon to solemnly remember the more than 1 million people who gave their lives for this nation. The flags are then raised to full-staff at noon.

“At noon, their memory is raised by the living who resolve not to let their sacrifice be in vain, but to rise up in the steady and continued fight for liberty,” Huggan said.

The event also featured pictures of service members from the area who had died in the line of duty, as well as letters they wrote to their families while they were serving, some shortly before their death.

The event opened with an invocation from Phil Edwards, pastor of First Assembly of God Church, thanking God for blessing America.

“We offer our prayers and thanks and intercession today,” he said. "Thank you for the freedom we enjoy in this country, for the opportunities to flourish, and for the security of our land. Thank you for those who have served in the armed services of our country, risking their lives for our liberty."

The Mosley High School USMC Junior ROTC color guard presented the colors. Jesselyn Dudinsky, a student at Troy University, sang the national anthem and “God Bless America.” Marine Corps League Detachment 065 presented a wreath in honor of fallen military members, and a roll call and honor walk, in which veterans walked up to flags and saluted them, featured veterans’ organizations from all over the area.

Later in the afternoon, a Memorial Day ceremony and wreath laying occurred at the Panama City Garden Club at the club’s War Memorial Wall, which lists the names of area residents who died during military service.