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Fairfax residents gathered May 26 to remember fallen service members not as distant names in history, but as ordinary Americans who answered extraordinary calls to sacrifice.

American Legion Post 177 and VFW Post 8469 jointly hosted the Memorial Day ceremony at the American Legion hall in Fairfax City. VFW Commander Mac McCarl served as emcee before an audience that included Del. David Bulova, Mayor Catherine Read, City Councilmembers Anthony Amos, Billy Bates and Tom Peterson, Fairfax County Sheriff Stacey Kincaid and Virginia State Police Capt. Greg Kincaid.

The ceremony began with a remembrance of U.S. Rep. Gerry Connolly, whose recent death was acknowledged by McCarl and guest speaker retired Army Lt. Gen. Richard Formica.

McCarl described Connolly as a committed advocate for veterans, particularly on healthcare and suicide prevention. Formica recalled Connolly as a familiar presence at local Memorial Day and Veterans Day observances and called for a moment of silence in his honor.

American Legion Post 177 Commander Eric Parkhurst also reflected on the site’s history. The post was established 80 years ago by World War I veterans seeking ways to support service members returning from World War II.

Among its founders was Fairfax native and World War I veteran Amos Chilcott, who donated more than nine acres of his apple orchard for the post. Although much of Fairfax has since been redeveloped, Parkhurst said the American Legion has remained a constant.

“So, welcome to our apple orchard — it’s where you sit now,” he told attendees.

The post’s flag had been lowered to half-staff at sunrise in memory of those lost in war. At noon, it was raised to full-staff to honor living veterans. Parkhurst also invited participants to Fairfax Cemetery, where a wreath was to be placed on Chilcott’s grave.

The Unmuted sang the national anthem, and a combined VFW and American Legion color guard entered. Post 8469 Chaplain Dan Allmacher offered an opening prayer for those who died preserving the nation’s freedoms.

A moment of silence followed for the country’s war dead, prisoners of war and those still missing in action.

A career shaped by loss

Formica, a retired field-artillery officer and Post 8469 member, served 36 years in the Army and commanded forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. He and his wife, Diane, settled in Fairfax County in 2013 after 14 military moves that took them across the United States and to Germany.

They have attended nearly every Memorial Day and Veterans Day ceremony in Fairfax during the past 12 years, Formica said. He singled out the annual reading of local names and the ringing of a bell for each Fairfax service member who died.

Among those remembered were RJ Hess, a high-school classmate of Formica’s daughter, and Capt. Laura Walker, whose father was one of Formica’s close Army colleagues.

Formica called Memorial Day a solemn occasion for reflection rather than celebration. During his military career, he attended or participated in observances in Verdun and Normandy in France; Neu Ulm, Wurzburg and Bamberg in Germany; Baghdad; Kabul; Arlington National Cemetery; and communities across the United States.

Despite the different settings, he said, each ceremony shared a powerful patriotism and a commitment to honoring both the fallen and the families they left behind.

He recalled preparing to speak at a Memorial Day event in a Huntsville, Alabama, cemetery while serving as commanding general of the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command. A member of the Patriot Guard approached, saluted and handed him a small black box containing a Bronze Star found in a pawn shop.

“Bronze stars don’t belong there,” the man told him, asking Formica to keep the medal safe. Formica said he has kept it close ever since.

More than 1.2 million uniformed men and women have died defending the United States since the nation’s founding, Formica said. That total includes more than 7,000 service members and civilians killed in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Each person left loved ones behind, he said, and each name read aloud represents an individual rather than simply an inscription on a monument.

Three soldiers remembered

Formica said he and his wife have attended too many military funerals and memorial services. His experience in Iraq and Afghanistan made those losses deeply personal.

While he commanded III Corps Artillery in Iraq, 20 of his soldiers were killed in combat. He also mourned 44 soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines, along with one civilian, who died in Afghanistan.

Formica shared the stories of three soldiers killed in two incidents in Iraq.

Spc. Jose Amancio Perez III was driving his first sergeant through enemy fire when a bullet struck him in the neck, above his body armor and below his helmet. Although mortally wounded, Perez accelerated out of the ambush and saved his first sergeant. He was posthumously awarded the Bronze Star.

Sfc. Clinton Wisdom and Sgt. Don Clary were providing security in an armored SUV for a visiting VIP traveling behind them. When another vehicle sped toward the convoy at an intersection, Wisdom and Clary positioned their SUV to take the impact, saving the VIP. Both were posthumously awarded the Bronze Star with “V” device for valor.

“These men were regular, American citizens serving their country,” Formica said. When suddenly faced with the need to sacrifice everything for others, he added, they did so.

Their stories and those of many others are often preserved through small community ceremonies, Formica said. He thanked those in attendance for setting aside part of the holiday weekend to remember the dead, recognize their families’ losses and pray for people still serving in dangerous places.

The ceremony concluded with a reading of the names of Fairfax County’s fallen. Air Force veteran Karen Cosgrove rang a bell after each name.

In his closing prayer, Allmacher again honored those who made the ultimate sacrifice and left the gathering with a final appeal: “Let us never forget.”