KILLEEN, TX — Hundreds of people traveled from near and far to pay their respects to our fallen heroes at the Central Texas Veterans Cemetery.
On a day as solemn as the sky, Alice Poage and Barbra Vickers take the 45-minute drive from Georgetown.
“We always come on Memorial Day and on their birthday," said Barbra Vickers, the wife of a Vietnam Veteran. "We miss them all the time and we will never get married again."
“We come and visit with our hubbies and tell them how much we miss them," said Alice Poage the wife of a Vietnam Veteran.
The widows finding comfort in their longtime friendship while fulfilling a decades-old promise.
“My husband said if you don’t come and see me on Christmas or my birthday that fine, but you come on Memorial Day and veteran's day. You come to see me and the boys," said Poage.
It's a day filled with heavy hearts, even for civilians.
“It is the realization that I am here because of them,” said Steve Durgin the Founder and CEO of Victory for Veterans. "It's an ongoing work, it’s a forever work. I am a civilian and I want other civilians to wake up and to realize that freedom is really costly, and we are here seeing the costs.”
With the acres of land, covered with thousands of tombstones, it's a sacrifice you can see.
“We always thank them for allowing us to stand on them for allowing us to stand on their shoulders because without them we would not be here,” said Jimmy Floyd with the Wounded Warrior Project.
Ernesto Cortez with the Wounded Warrior Project said, “Memorial Day should be every day not just one day of the year."
