Ohio Fallen Heroes Memorial ceremony set for September 8

By LENNY C. LEPOLA

News Assis­tant Man­ag­ing Editor

Next Sat­ur­day, Sep­tem­ber 8, the Ohio Fallen Heroes Memo­r­ial will hold its annual 9/11 remem­brance cer­e­mony hon­or­ing all Ohio ser­vice mem­bers killed in the War on Ter­ror and their Gold Star fam­i­lies left behind.

“More than 260 Ohioans have given their lives in the line of duty since 9/11,” said OFHM Pres­i­dent and an Iraq War vet­eran Shawn Del­gado. “This Memo­r­ial exists to show their fam­i­lies, friends and all of the pub­lic, that Ohio does not for­get its fallen heroes.”

Speak­ers at this year’s cer­e­mony will be Con­gress­man Pat Tiberi, OFHM Founder Jerry Jodrey, Gold Star fam­ily mem­ber Teresa Eng­lish and Delgado.

The Ohio Fallen Heroes Memo­r­ial was estab­lished in 2005 through the efforts of vet­er­ans, Gold Star fam­i­lies, and other patri­otic Ohioans, who wanted to cre­ate a last­ing trib­ute to those killed in the War on Terror.

Each Ohio ser­vice mem­ber killed in the line of duty is hon­ored with the place­ment of a large mar­ble marker bear­ing his or her name, rank and date of death. The Memo­r­ial cur­rently con­tains more than 255 mark­ers, as well as a chapel, a court­yard of honor, and var­i­ous mil­i­tary sculp­tures and flags.

The Memo­r­ial was rec­og­nized by the Ohio House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives as a statewide memo­r­ial to Ohio’s fallen in 2005.

Each year, the OFHM holds a lun­cheon at Sun­bury United Methodist Church for nearly 250 Gold Star fam­ily mem­bers, who then walk en masse across the street to the Memo­r­ial site in Sunbury.

There, with the pub­lic, elected offi­cials and mem­bers of the mil­i­tary in atten­dance, a cer­e­mony hon­ors the fallen – cul­mi­nat­ing in the read­ing of each ser­vice member’s name aloud.

The cer­e­mony begins at 4:30 p.m. and will last until 6 p.m., fol­lowed by a night-long vigil at the Memo­r­ial by mem­bers of Sunbury’s VFW Post 8736.

“This event is a pow­er­ful way to observe 9/11, and we encour­age the pub­lic to join us,” added Brian Stew­art, OFHM Vice Pres­i­dent and an Iraq War vet­eran. “Stand­ing in the mid­dle of this field of mark­ers gives you a pow­er­ful sense of the level of Ohio’s sac­ri­fice for our nation.”

For more infor­ma­tion, go to < ohiofallenheroes.org >.

Posted by Gary Henery on Aug 29 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.