These young men graduated from Leon County Schools and joined the military. They became soldiers, Navy SEALs and Green Berets and U.S. Marines, who were sent overseas, and didn't return.
Tallahassee's monument to these recently fallen veterans — The Leon County Schools Wall of Remembrance, a 10,000-pound slab of granite bearing their names, ranks and alma maters that stands in front of the Bloxham Building on South Calhoun St. — was unveiled during the Wednesday morning ceremony with the help of high school junior ROTC programs and one of the region's highest-ranking and longest serving militarily officers.
At the end of the ceremony, the velvet curtain was lifted and soldiers' families placed roses on the memorial and touched the names of their loved ones carved into the stone while two trumpets played an echoing rendition of "Taps."
"I cannot find words to describe how touched I am by what they did," said Clara Aliganga, of Tallahassee. Her son, Jesse Nathanael Aliganga, graduated from Leon High School.
He became a Marine Security Guard. During his first tour of duty in 1998, he was protecting the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya when it was attacked by Al-Qaeda car bombs.
Like other family members of the soldiers honored on Wednesday, Aliganga felt the waves of conflicting emotions as she recalled the loss of her son and witnessed the outpouring of of appreciation for veterans like him.
"It's opposite poles when it comes to the emotions — the reminder of their loss and the honor," she said.
Marine Cpl. Julian Woodall was a SAIL high school graduate, killed in action in Anbar Province in Iraq. His mother, Meredith McMackin, is an artist based in Tallahassee.
Now a Florida State University doctoral student studying art therapy, she said the loss of her son inspired her to look for ways to help veterans who return from tours of duty with post-traumatic stress disorder, and the families of those who do not return, to cope with grief.
