Montgomery County Common Pleas Judge Dennis J. Adkins, who founded a Veteran’s Treatment Court in 2013, was the master of ceremonies.
“The freedoms that we enjoy today have not come without a price,” Adkins said. “Lying here in the National Cemetery next to us are men and women who gave their lives so we could live in freedom and without fear.”
Margaret Kruckemeyer, the president emeritus for the American Veterans Heritage Center, a veteran and a former nurse practitioner at the Dayton VA, was also honored during the ceremony for her contributions to local veterans.
Retired U.S. Army Colonel, Ohio Military Reserve Colonel and Fort Hood Massacre survivor, Dr. Kathy Platoni, who lives in the Dayton area and works with the Dayton SWAT team, spoke at the ceremony on the impact of the Fort Hood attack in 2009.
On Nov. 5, 2009, Nidal Hasan, a U.S. Army major and psychiatrist, killed 13 people and injured more than 30 others. It remains the deadliest mass shooting on a U.S. military base.
Platoni was at the attack and part of the group of soldiers who were being processed for deployment. She read off the names of the victims of the shooting: physician’s assistant Michael Grant Cahill, US Army (Retired), 62, of Cameron, TX; Maj. Libardo Eduardo Caraveo, 52, of Woodbridge, VA; Staff Sgt. Justin DeCrow, 32, of Plymouth, IN; Capt. John Paul Gaffaney, 54, of San Diego, CA; Spc. Frederick Greene, 29, of Mountain City, TN; Spc. Jason Dean Hunt, 22, of Tillman, OK; Staff Sgt. Amy Krueger, 29, of Kiel, WI; Pfc. Aaron Thomas Nemelka, 19, of West Jordan, UT; Pfc. Michael Pearson, 22, of Bolingbrook, IL; Capt. Russell Seager, 51, of Racine, WI; Pvt. Francheska Velez, who was pregnant when she died, 21, of Chicago, IL; Lt. Col. Juanita Warman, 55, of Havre de Grace, MD; and Spc. Kham Xiong, 23, of St. Paul, MN.
“Five of them were my friends,” Platoni said. “I watched them die.”
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