I’m a day late with a post for Veteran’s Day, but I have a good reason. Yesterday on Veteran’s Day my hometown of Hydro, Oklahoma dedicated a new veterans memorial, the memorial is located in the Hydro Masonic Cemetery and is truly beautiful. Hydro has over 260 veterans buried in the cemetery and one of the local ladies spearheaded a campaign to create a memorial to remember all the local men and women who have served our country. The memorial itself is made of black granite with two black granite benches in front and three black flagpoles in the back where every day the Oklahoma flag, American flag and POW flag will fly.
The day was the quintessential small town event with the Hydro High School choir there to sing patriotic music, the fire trucks arrived and formed a barrier for the attendees since the wind was gusting over 50 mph at times.
We heard from a young woman, Kelly Muncy Bayley, Kelly’s father was Billy Bob Muncy, a Hydro resident killed during the Vietnam War when she was 5 years old. Kelly shared with us how proud she was of her father and how much it meant to her to be from a town that supported her and her family so much after the death of her father.
We witnessed a flag ceremony to christen the new flag poles with the American flag being used having flown over U.S. Base in Ar-Ramadi, Iraq.
The keynote address was given by Colonel Gregory Lankford, Commander 45th Field Artillery Brigade
Early yesterday morning Mom, Dad, myself and other volunteers marked the more than 260 graves with flags for the special day.
The flags representing the branches of the service were on display and put on quite a show in the Oklahoma wind.
That’s my dad!!!!
The day was beautiful and very meaningful and as the son, grandson and nephew of veterans I am very proud of the monument and all those who served our great country.
