As he stood in front of the black granite walls bearing the names of thousands of Habersham County veterans, retired U.S. Army Colonel John Mooneyham remembered the sacrifice of his high school friend Warren Smith.
Smith, who the highly decorated Mooneyham credits with getting him through high school, was a Special Forces medic who aspired to become a doctor when he returned from Vietnam. He never realized his dream. During his second tour in ‘Nam Smith was killed in the A Shau Valley in 1966. “And one of the repercussions that comes from people dying,” pointed out Mooneyham still feeling the loss of his friend 50 years later, “is what could he have accomplished as a doctor. Maybe he would have found a cure for cancer or for heart disease or something like that, but we’ll never know.”
That was one of several remembrances of friends killed in action that Mooneyham shared with a crowd of approximately 100 people who turned out Saturday for an early Memorial Day service at the Habersham County Veterans Wall of Honor in Cornelia.
The event, the first to be held at the wall since it was raised in 2015, was sponsored by the Wall of Honor Committee, Grant Reeves VFW Post 7720, American Legion Post 84 and Rabun County DAV Chapter 15.
In opening the ceremony, Wall of Honor Committee Chair Larry Whitfield recognized the veterans present and the Rev. Roy Rogers offered a tribute to them and their fallen comrades.
JROTC cadets from Habersham Central High School presented the colors and Everett Huffman sang the Star Spangled Banner a cappella. Soon, members of the patriotic crowd were singing along.
Mooneyham, who was inducted into the Georgia Military Veterans Hall of Fame for Valor in 2015, used the occasion to chide the Obama Administration for its record on veterans issues. He said, “55,000 lives were lost in Vietnam. There’s been over 5,000 and counting in Iraq. These were men and women doing their duty for an Administration that doesn’t care, nor does it provide for the wounded returning.”
There was a poignancy to his comments – a decorated veteran exercising the right to free speech that his service helped to secure. Still, politics did not overshadow the patriotism on display as Mooneyham honored the service and sacrifice of his fellow veterans and their families and a military Honor Guard offered up a 21-gun salute to the those killed in the line of duty throughout our nation’s history.
It was an emotional service for Judy and Mack Booth of Mt. Airy who, along with their dog Jegs, proudly displayed their patriotic colors in the form of a red, white and blue umbrella that shaded them from the sun. After the service Judy said, “It’s very important to me that we remember our veterans” and Mack, a Vietnam veteran, said he’ll forever remain grateful to those who died. “It overwhelms me. I’m just so grateful to make it back and I give thanks for the service of the ones that didn’t.”
Habersham County Deputy Coroner Ken Franklin was also among those who attended Saturday’s service. Franklin served in the U.S. Air Force. His dad was in the U.S. Coast Guard. Both of their names are on Habersham’s Wall of Honor. Standing by the wall after the service he reflected on the day and described it as sad.
“It meant a gathering of vets but it’s sad because so many of these names on here that I know aren’t with us anymore. That’s what Memorial Day’s about,” Franklin said. “It’s in the memory of these who aren’t here anymore, but very few people in this nation know that. Those of us who do know it can only look at the ones that are having fun today and know that they’re having fun because of what people whose names are here did and what all the other millions across this nation have done for this country.”
Memorial Day Service
May 28, 2016
Habersham County Veterans Wall of Honor
Cornelia, GA
(Photos by Genia Pittman)
