Hoosier Village Retirement Community held a Memorial Day ceremony May 24 and added 25 engraved bricks to its veterans garden.
A year ago, Hoosier Village dedicated the garden, which is in the center of the community. Rob May, the Hoosier Village chaplain and a retired U.S. Navy chaplain, led the ceremony.
“We started off with 129 names on those first batch of bricks, and this is now the third time we are gathering to honor veterans to add more bricks,” May said. “Every time we have the opportunity to add more bricks is a special day.”
Out of the 25 bricks added to the garden wall, 21 bear the names of living veterans who are part of the Hoosier Village community. Of those, five served in World War II, 10 served in Korea and 12 served in Vietnam. A few served in multiple wars. Of the 25 names, 14 are from the Army, four from the Navy, three from the Marines and four are from the Air Force.
As May announced each name, the veterans received a medal and small American flag. Following the reading of the names, a video honoring all veterans in attendance with a playing of all the service songs was shown. A video clip of the veterans garden dedication also was shown.
THE VETERANS
Veterans whose names were added to the garden in Hoosier Village are:
- Lauritz Berg
- Richard Cohee
- Robert Lee Coval
- Daniel Crowe
- Fred Fehsenfeld
- Mac Fehsenfeld
- Robert Fulford
- Robert Hoover
- Eric Johnson
- Don Laskowski
- Hitch Learned
- Jon Marhenke
- William McHenry
- Richard Meidell
- Charles Olt
- Edward Lee Runyan
- Jon Schroeder
- Robert Stallard
- Dick Stewart
- Donald Stuhldreher
- C.B. (Tom) Thomas
- Glenn Tobias
- Robert Lee Turner
- David Welty
- Robert Winter
