Keep the spirit of a war hero alive
5/24/2013
Miss Poppy and Sylvania Mayor Craig Stough.
Thursday was a day I will not forget. I spent the morning at Toledo Memorial Park Cemetery observing volunteers who had a personal connection to a war veteran or were a veteran decorate the graves of deceased veterans with American flags.
I didn’t take any photos. It just seemed like a time to be quiet and stand back. Izzy Ortiz, a Marine who served in Vietnam, coordinates the placing of the flags for his team of 15. During the activity he spoke about how everyone has some connection to a veteran. I immediately told him that my family is from Sicily and no one served in the American military.
But as soon as those sentences left my mouth I realized that one of my uncles did serve in the American military after my father’s family moved to the United States. He was stationed for about a year or so in Alaska. And then I remembered that my great uncle served in World War II for the Italian army.