Thousands of people in Southwest Florida attended ceremonies Monday to honor those who have died for their country.
A gathering at Fort Myers Memorial Gardens drew many local dignitaries, including U.S. Rep.Trey Radel, R-Fort Myers, who was the keynote speaker.
In a two minute speech, the freshman lawmaker praised the young men and women from Southwest Florida who have recently signed on to serve.
“There’s a very harsh, harsh reality to their reality as they join as they train, and I don’t need to tell the veterans about it here today” Radel said. “The harsh reality is this: many of these will take on these challenges in service to our country knowing that potentially we could be here next year remembering them.”
Attendees included a small but dwindling number of WWII and Korean War vets, who were there to remember lost comrades. There were some active service members in the crowd, as well.
Corey Younger from Fort Myers is a flight nurse with the Air Force Reserves, transporting injured troops home. He said he felt compelled to join-up when his work brought him into contact with these young men and women.
“I was actually 47 years old when I got my commission as an Air Force officer,” Younger said. “I did it purely so I could feel I was serving them, the troops on the ground out there protecting our freedoms.”
According to numbers compiled by CNN, there are almost 1.5 million Americans in armed service world-wide. More than 6,700 service men and women have died in the wars Iraq and Afghanistan.
