Local leaders and McCormick Institute representatives were at both the Mount Peace event and this memorial at the 65th Infantry Park to honor the Borinqueneers. (Photo/Rep. Paula Stark's Office)
Veterans, civic organizations, and residents paid tribute to military members who died while serving their country at a solemn Memorial Day wreath-laying ceremony Monday morning.
St. Cloud, founded by Union Civil War veterans in 1910, traditionally has the largest Memorial Day observance in Osceola County, with over 1,400 veterans buried in the city’s Mount Peace Cemetery. At the first Memorial Day observance in St. Cloud in 1910, only three veterans were buried there, and Monday’s ceremony marked the 115th consecutive Memorial Day observance at the cemetery.
Military flag honors were conducted by cadets from St. Cloud High School’s Army Junior ROTC and members of the Marine Corps League Florida Detachment 1092, “The September 11th Detachment.”
Over 100 people in attendance heard Memorial Day messages from a number of local elected officials, including U.S. Representative Darren Soto, state representatives Paula Stark and Erika Booth, Osceola County District 5 Commissioner Ricky Booth, St. Cloud Mayor Chis Robertson, and St. Cloud Councilman Ken Gilbert.
Mayor Robertson, who is also the executive director of the county’s Military History Museum, honored in remembrance Marine Lance Corporal Jason Burnett, who died in Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2006 at age 20. He was a 2004 graduate of St. Cloud High School. Burnett’s Marine uniform, framed with his military decorations and several pictures, is on permanent display at the museum and was brought to the cemetery for the event.
“He was the first St. Cloud resident to die in the Global War on Terror,” said Robertson.
After the Mayor’s remarks, 29 individual wreaths were laid by the podium, presented by veterans and civic groups, elected officials, and the City of St. Cloud.
The ceremony concluded with the traditional 21-gun salute and the playing of “Taps,” performed by the Osceola County Veterans Council Honor Guard, who had also rendered similar honors at Rose Hill Cemetery in Kissimmee earlier Monday morning.
Memorial Day observances were also held on Monday at Kissimmee’s Rose Hill Cemetery, 65th Infantry Veterans Park (Borinqueneers) in Buenaventura Lakes, and in Celebration.
