For Harry Johnson, the moment was poignant.
He is a Gold Star son.
“I was wearing my sunglasses,” Johnson, 57 would say Friday after placing a wreath at the foot of the newly placed Gold Star Memorial marker in Freedom Memorial Park. “But I had tears in my eyes.”
Johnson’s late father, Master Sgt. Denning Cicero “D.C.” Johnson, died on April 14, 1975, when a C-5A Galaxy military transport aircraft crashed in the Bien Hoa province near Saigon while flying 247 Vietnamese orphans to the United States as a part of “Operation Baby Lift.” Master Sgt. Johnson was with the 9th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron, 375th Aeromedical Airlift Wing, 13th Air Force.
“I was 9 years old,” said Harry Johnson, a 1984 graduate of Reid Ross High School who now resides outside of Charlotte.
For Darlene Figueroa, the moment was poignant.
She is a Gold Star mother.
“I got choked up,” Figueroa said after ringing the Gold Star bell in memory of her son, Airman Keifer Christian Huhman, who died at age 21 on Feb. 8, 2016, while stationed at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.
For Patti Elliott, the moment was poignant.
She is a Gold Star mother.
Her son, Spc. Daniel Lucas Elliott, was killed at age 21 on July 15, 2011, when a roadside bomb struck a vehicle while the Youngsville native was serving with the 200th Military Police Command in Basra, Iraq. The Army Reserve soldier died three days before his 22nd birthday. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
“This is the first of these I’ve been involved in,” Elliott, 58, said after joining with Gloria Leggett, a Gold Star widow, in unveiling the Gold Star Memorial marker that now will stand beside the Blue Star Memorial Highway marker. “It was just amazing.”
For Leggett, the moment was poignant.
She lost her husband, Corp. Franklin O. Leggett, on April 4, 1968, in the Bien Hoa province of South Vietnam.
Leggett said her husband was the love of her life. He did not live to know his daughter.
‘The ultimate sacrifice’
Close to 100 people turned out Friday for the unveiling and dedication of the Gold Star Memorial in the park that stands across Bragg Boulevard from the Airborne & Special Operations Museum. Among them were Mayor Pro Tem Kathy Keefe Jensen, Fayetteville City Council members Mario Benavente, Malik Davis, Brenda McNair and Courtney Banks-McLaughlin, Cumberland Board of County Commissioners Chairman Glenn Adams and former state Sen. Kirk deViere.
“This is an exciting day for this city and Fort Liberty,” said LaRue Cooke, president of the sponsoring Cross Creek-Briarwood Garden Club that becomes the fifth garden club in the state to have the Gold Star Memorial and the Blue Star Memorial Highway marker in the same community park. “There is not enough gratitude in our hearts for Gold Star families. We are the land of the free and the home of the brave.”
Sponsorship of the marker was made in cooperation with the Cumberland County Veterans Council and the N.C. State Elks Association.
Paula Hartman, chairwoman of the Blue Star Gold Star Garden Club of North Carolina, would echo Cooke’s remarks.
“We are here today recognizing families of those who gave their lives for this country,” Hartman said.
Linda McLendon, president of the Garden Club of North Carolina, officially would dedicate the Gold Star Memorial before Col. John Wilcox, garrison commander for Fort Liberty, and Command Sgt. Major Greg Seymour of the military base would join with Elliott and Leggett for the Gold Star Memorial unveiling.
“Today, let us remember,” McLendon said. “They made the ultimate sacrifice. May we stand for honor, hope and healing.”
Gold Star, Blue Star side by side
There was just something touching about this day, as Patti Elliott would remind us, and any day when we are reminded of husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, brothers and sisters who have given their all for their country.
“Cross Creek-Briarwood Garden Club members felt that we needed to sponsor the Gold Star Memorial at Freedom Memorial Park to be erected beside the Blue Star Memorial marker, which we sponsored in 1956,” club member and Gold Star chairwoman Sybil West later said. “The Gold Star Memorial marker honors all our Armed Forces of America families, whose loved one made the ultimate sacrifice defending the United States of America.”
The Blue Star Memorial Highway marker first was dedicated along U.S. 301 North on March 3, 1956, moved in 1977 to the old Fayetteville Fire Station on Person Street and was placed at Freedom Memorial Park on March 22, 2005, after being refurbished.
Current Cross Creek-Briarwood Garden Club members are Cooke, the president; West, Kathy Allen, Gerri Arrowood, Debbie Browning, Kris Caison, Carolyn Carter, Charlotte Baker, Sarah Faison, Diane Guidone, Debi Long, Louise Hall, Faye Highsmith, Eve Holden, Teresa Johnson, Joyce Lipe, Penny Maxwell, Connie Michaels, Debbie Nepstad, Ginna Pugh, Carla Richardson, Irma Smith, Rita Ruble, Shelton Shearon, Kristin Smith, Polly Strickland and Linda Williams.
Epilogue
“Every day is Memorial Day for us,” said Patti Elliott, 58, who was a member of the local Renaming Committee of the military base from Fort Bragg to Fort Liberty in 2023 and serves as first vice president of the American Gold Star Mothers. “Markers like this will educate the public. Remember to say their names about the people on these monuments, because we never want to forget.”
Bill Kirby Jr. can be reached at billkirby49@gmail.com or 910-624-1961.
We're in our third year of CityView Today, and so many of you have been with us from day one in our efforts to bring the news of the city, county, community and Cape Fear region each day. We’re here with a purpose — to deliver the news that matters to you. To sustain CityView Today’s reporting, we cannot do it without you, and hope you will become members of our team by giving your support. Click here to join.
