Oklahomans honor fallen veterans

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ On Memorial Day, thousands of Oklahomans remembered the freedoms and security fallen military men and women helped ensure for the country. <br/><br/>Events were held across the state

Monday, May 31st 2004, 1:01 pm

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ On Memorial Day, thousands of Oklahomans remembered the freedoms and security fallen military men and women helped ensure for the country.

Events were held across the state to honor military personnel killed in wars.

Timothy Spain, director of the Fort Gibson National Cemetery, said 3,500 people visited over the three-day weekend, including 1,500 at a service Monday afternoon.

``It's strictly to honor the veterans who have fallen, just honor their past service,'' Spain said.

The Fort Gibson ceremony included an aircraft flyover by the 125th Fighter Squadron of the National Guard in Tulsa and a display of military vehicles.

The event was to focus on World War II veterans because of the weekend's dedication of the new World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Each of the approximately 14,900 upright marble tombstones at Fort Gibson was decorated with a cloth U.S. flag, Spain said.

Troops buried there date back to the Spanish-American War in 1898. The most recently buried was Staff Sgt. Eric Petty on May 11. Petty was killed by small arms fire May 3 while providing security at a weapons cache in Salman Al Habb, Iraq.

Starting early Monday morning on the steps of the Capitol, the Sooner Detachment of the Marine Corps League and others started reading the more than 6,000 names of Oklahoma war casualties dating back to the Spanish-American War.

Organizers said the event lasted into the early evening. They estimated more than 500 people had come by midday Monday.

``I believe in immortality, and I think our only real immortality as humans as we know it is being remembered,'' said retired Lance Cpl. Larry Lee Smith, commandant of the Sooner Detachment of the Marine Corps League, which organized the reading of names.

Smith lost his brother, Charles Leslie Smith, in the Vietnam War. Both brothers served as riflemen.

Larry Smith helped organize the Memorial Day event in the mid-1980s.

``The emotions have never died within me,'' he said. ``I get pretty emotional about it because my kid brother is going to be 18 forever now.''

A ceremony in Enid at the Woodring Wall of Honor and Veterans Park was planned to honor those killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Congressman Brad Carson was to speak.

The town of Madill, in south-central Oklahoma, planned to honor World War II veterans, and a Vietnam Veterans celebration was planned in Anadarko, southwest of Oklahoma City.