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City of Jacksonville to add 4 names to Veterans Wall at Memorial Day ceremony

Four names will be added to the Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Wall on Monday in a tribute to the sacrifice they made to the country.

The annual Memorial Day observance starts at 8:30 a.m., and people are encouraged to arrive early.

Christopher A. Reed of the U.S. Navy; Jimmie Randolph of the U.S. Air Force; Brittney N. Mitchell of the U.S. Army and George W. Woods of the U.S. Marine Corps will forever have their names on the second largest memorial wall in the country. The only one larger is the Vietnam War Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C.

"These are individuals that are part of our local community that have passed in the service of their country," says Bill Spann, director of the Military Affairs and Veterans Department for the City of Jacksonville.

He says family member of the fallen will get the chance to speak during the ceremony, in what is a touching moment each year.

"It's a way for Jacksonville citizens, before they go to the beach, before they go out and cook hot dogs and enjoy those freedoms, to really remember where those freedoms came from," says Harrison Conyers, the supervisor of the Military Affairs and Veterans Department.

He says there are two big differences this year than in many recent years. Two of the names being added are Vietnam veterans, and they’ll also commemorate D-Day.

"It's not that we forgot them when the wall was originally built," Conyers says of the Vietnam veterans. "But their obituaries did not run in Jacksonville."

The remembrance of D-Day is fitting because the 75th anniversary is coming up June 6. Spann says there will be four D-Day veterans in attendance.

"We may not get a chance to honor those individuals on the 80th anniversary," Spann says.

If you've never been to the Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Wall, it's located between the Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville and TIAA Bank Field. Anyone is welcome to attend.

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