DUBLIN, Va. – Dozens of veterans and families attended the annual Memorial Day Ceremony at the Southwest Virginia Veterans Cemetery in Dublin to remember the men and women who served our country.
Monday's ceremony was a patriotic tribute to honor the members of the military who paid the ultimate sacrifice serving the country.
Oakley Friend and his daughter, Erin Friend, have made it a tradition to attend the ceremony together the past three years. Both served in the U.S. Army. Oakley served from 1970 to 1972 and Erin served in the Iraq War in 2006.
"It means a lot to me and I'm really proud of her," Oakley Friend said. "It's one of the very best days of our lives together and it means a lot."
"Reflecting and honoring everybody who didn't come home," Erin Friend said. "For me and for him both, it's just being here together and thanking everybody who isn't able to be here together like we are."
Prayers, music and a wreath laying ceremony honored the fallen, including Wanda Ware's husband.
"He said that his job in the Navy was, he never found another one as satisfactory," Ware said.
Alta Conner is a veteran. Her husband served in the Army.
"I was a nurse in the Air Force and my husband went in at Normandy on D-Day," Conner said. "He's buried here at the cemetery and I will be buried beside of him."
Families at the memorial service said it was a somber ceremony charged with emotions and filled with memories of those who gave all for their country.