SIERRA VISTA, Ariz (KGUN9-TV) - At Fort Huachuca’s cemetery you can see more than a century of service etched in stone and stretching far in the distance.
On this Memorial Day, the cemetery started in 1883 hosted a solemn ceremony to remember all the service men and women who died serving our country.
They remembered with prayer, flowers, rifle salutes, and “Taps” the bugle call that tells soldiers it's time to rest.
As Mary Munoz stood in the front row, she held a photo of Captain Gilbert Munoz...her only son. He was a Green Beret who served in Korea and Colombia. On a ten day assignment to Iraq he caught an illness that killed him.
His father, Gilbert Munoz says, "It's been 12 years already since he passed away. The feeling is the same as if it was yesterday. You feel for all of these families who have lost their loved ones. It's just...nothing compares to it."
And Captain Munoz’s father worries we may remember on Memorial Day, and forget the rest of the year.
"I know these Memorial Days are special but they should be remembered every day. There are men or women out there right now sacrificing a lot and we need to keep them in mind and do what we can to help them out."
Close to Mary Munoz heart, she wears a Gold Star---the small symbol of the huge sacrifice her son, her family and so many other families have made.
As Commander of Fort Huachuca and the Army Intelligence Center of Excellence Major General Scott Berrier leads modern soldiers skilled with the latest technology but tapped into traditions as old as our country; sharing something people with no ties to the military may not understand.
"I think what they should understand is that we are a family so when their soldier joins the my the family is really joining the Army as well and if you saw in the back of our formation today we had a lot of young soldiers that were observing this ceremony and if their families were here we'd say we're here for you and we're going through this journey together."
Army Specialist Julianne Mica is one of those young soldiers who watched the ceremony.
"Hopefully after a couple of years in I can look back, look at all the hard work. Just every day you wake up you appreciate all you've done and the people that surround you and the leadership we have and the freedoms we have so..."
And with the ceremony over, soldiers continue their lives of service while others remember service cut short.
