- January 20, 2025
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Residents gather outside the Flagler County Government Services Building on State Road 100 Nov. 11 for the county's Veterans Day ceremony. Photos by Jonathan Simmons
Deidre Jean Wright, a retired Air Force major, is this year's "Flagler County Colonel Gary E. DeKay Veteran of the Year” award recipient. She holds leadership positions with multiple local veterans organizations.
Matanzas High School Army ROTC cadets
Flagler Palm Coast High School Formality Singers perform the national anthem
Ernest C. Audino, a retired Army brigadier general, delivered the event's keynote address.
Flagler County Commissioners David Sullivan, Greg Hansen and Charlie Ericksen. Sullivan and Hansen are Navy veterans, and Ericksen is an Army veteran.
Members of local veterans organizations lined the covered space outside the Government Services Building during the county's Veterans Day ceremony.
The Knights of Columbus Color Guard 2810 participated in the ceremony.
Neal McCoppin, chairman of the Flagler County Veterans Advisory Council
Flagler Palm Coast High School Air Force Junior ROTC cadets
Matanzas High School Army JROTC cadets retire the colors.
Community members — many dressed in shades of red, white and blue — raised American flags, sang "God Bless America," and listened to speeches and invocations Nov. 11 at Flagler County's Veterans Day ceremony outside the Government Services Building on State Road 100 in Bunnell.
Amercan service members' sacrifice, retired Army Brigadier Gen. Ernest Audino said, "has created a country that put the world on wheels. We have put the world on wings. We have defeated the scourge of Nazi ideology; we have freed the Eastern Bloc; we have taken the world into the space age, into the computer age, the Information Age. ... And none of that — none, my friends — was achieved by forcing anybody to believe anything. But rather, it was accomplished by giving so many the freedom to believe anything they wanted."
The county honored this year's veteran of the year — Deidre Jean Wright, a retired Air Force major with 20 years of active duty service as a aircraft maintenance officer — with a plaque, and the audience applauded a rendition of the national anthem by students of the Flagler Palm Coast High School Formality Singers. FPC Air Force JROTC and Matanzas High School Army JROTC cadets presented and retired the colors.
Extolling the positive values that America stands for in the world, and veterans' role in making the nation what it is, retired Army Brig. Gen. Ernest C. Audino delivered the event's keynote address.
Audino, currently the District 6 advisor for U.S. Congressman Michael Waltz, was embedded with a Kurdish Peshmerga brigade in Iraq as a combat advisor for four years.
"We serve as a light and an inspiration to so many around the world," Audino said of the United States. "What we achieved here in the United States was not achieved just by way of the trigger pullers, but by every member of this country in all walks of life who's been trying to pull in the same direction and has made this country what it is today. But, for those trigger pullers, we know that all of that was founded on a basis of real sacrifice — and sometimes that sacrifice is the ultimate sacrifice, the full measure."
He listed the approximate numbers of American soldiers killed in America's military engagements, starting from the Civil War and continuing through the 15 killed in Syria.
"Real sacrifice," he said. "But what has that done for us? It has created a country that put the world on wheels. We have put the world on wings. We have defeated the scourge of Nazi ideology; we have freed the Eastern Bloc; we have taken the world into the space age, into the computer age, the Information Age. The world clamors for the curricula of our colleges and universities; the world devours our literature and our movies. Many of the great advances in medicine are from the United States: I'm particularly proud of that. And more and more. And none of that — none, my friends — was achieved by forcing anybody to believe anything. But rather, it was accomplished by giving so many the freedom to believe anything they wanted. And that is what helps unshackle the individual brilliance of every one of us and everyone who is willing to step up to the plate."
He paraphrased Ronald Reagan, who'd said that many people spend their whole lives wondering if they've made a difference in the world, but service members — Reagan had specifically mentioned the Marines — don't have that problem.
"They've given us, and they've given the world, a land of opportunity," Audino said.
Audino said he wanted to talk about two people who exemplified that opportunity.
The first was his grandfather, who'd immigrated to the U.S. from Italy.
"Our ancestors who have come here — and many of you who might be immigrants who have come here — you had to be very brave to put everything you knew about the world behind you; in many cases you couldn't even speak the language of this new country, the United States, but you took that brave step," he said.
The second was one of his Kurdish interpreters from Iraq. Had word had gotten out in the man's neighborhood that he was working with the Americans, he risked being targeted by Al Qaeda, Audino said. But, "He used to tell me, 'Boss, when you're on the tough missions, the dangerous ones, don't ask for anybody else, just ask for me: I want to go with you.'" That interpreter, Audino said, has moved to America.
"It's because of the sacrifices of the American soldier that the United States remains the greatest nation in history," Audino said. "And she's not perfect, but she strives to be perfect. She is not perfect, but she is the best ever created by humans. Some say she's not always right, but she always strives for what's right. And she may not be appreciated by all, but she is always appreciated by many, especially those in need. God bless our veterans and their families, God bless each and every one of our fallen comrades, and God bless this great nation."
Veterans organizations participating in the ceremony, according to a Flagler County government news release, included American Legion Post 115, Amvets Post 113, Marine Corps League 876, Military Officers Association of America, Military Order of the Purple Heart, Flagler County Veterans Service Office, and the Knights of Columbus Color Guard 2810 and Disabled American Veterans Chapter 86.
