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Memorial Day

Town of Huntingdon Memorializes Troops during Commemoration

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HUNTINGDON (May 27) — The Town of Huntingdon memorialized the men and women who gave the ultimate sacrifice while serving this nation as a member of the U.S. Military.
Commander Thomas O’Bryant was the featured speaker during the annual event at Thomas Park.
O’Bryant is the veterans service officer for Carroll County. He graduated from Annapolis in 1978 with a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering. He finished flight school in 1980 and proceeded to train in the A-6 Intruder. He served eight years in Naval Aviation and had 438 carrier landings in the A-6 aircraft. He left the Navy and worked two years in engineering with Boeing and was involved in the study of why NASA’s Challenger mission exploded on takeoff. He returned to service in the Navy, where he was the comanding officer of the Reserve Recruiting Detachment Three in Fort Worth. He retired from the Navy in 2000, when he and wife, Debbie, also a Navy retiree, moved to Carroll County. The couple has one son, a lieutenant in the Navy.
When the country called, they served, said Commander O’Bryant. He was speaking of the men and women who served in the armed forces. It is the last Monday of each May that Americans honor the memory of those who did not make it home alive. Some remain behind. Some 82,000 are missing in action since World War 1.
O’Bryant, himself, was spared from one certain fatal accident. O’Bryant and Stuart Ivey, both Naval aviator, switched assignments. Ivey never made it back alive from that training mission. Stu had a wife, one infant child, and another on the way.

Fewer than two percent of Americans volunteer to serve in the armed forces. He asked the audience to honor their actions and to remember their service.
O’Bryant said he works to serve the needs of the veterans and their widows in Carroll County. It might be to help with paperwork, offer a kind word, or to obtain a U.S. Flag.
Boy Scout Troop 73 presented the colors to open the ceremony and laid the wreath at the war memorial at the war memorial to close the event.
Mayor Dale Kelley welcome the gathering and introduced the gathering of veterans, who were seated separately and each had a red carnation.
Henry Simpson performed the National Anthem and Tim Parish offered the closing prayer.
Brayden Campbell played “Taps” on the trumpet.

Huntingdon, Memorial Day, 2019