MEMORIAL DAY

Memorial Day Remains a Solemn Tribute or the Men and Women Who Made the Ultimate Sacrifice

by Bryan Kirk | photos

For many Americans, Memorial Day is a three-day weekend that signals the beginning of summer, and it’s hardly uncommon for most to spend that first summer weekend at South Padre Island, Port Aransas, or Galveston Island.

However, military veterans hold the meaning of that solemn day especially close, often for reasons they may not share with their friends and family.

Oscar Garcia and Carl Farmer both served in combat areas and have a deeper understanding of Memorial Day.

“Some people fail to realize these freedoms are not free,” Farmer said.

“Lives were sacrificed to secure and keep them. The difference between me celebrating Memorial Day and others is that I have names to remember. I have friends who died for these freedoms.”

Farmer, who is originally from Detroit, Mich., is the pastor at The Family Church, Weslaco campus.

Farmer, who retired from the Navy after 20 years of accumulated service, joined the Navy in 1973.

“I had a high school friend who told me about joining the Navy,” he said.

He spent his 18th birthday in boot camp at the Great Lakes Naval Base.

Farmer completed basic training and went to school to become a Navy Corpsman. During his first enlistment, he was assigned to a naval hospital located in Charleston, S.C., and aboard USS Edward McDonnell.

While serving at sea, he encountered a group of sailors who “changed the trajectory” of his life.

“They helped me understand the meaning and worth of life,” he said. “I became a chaplain because of the deposits they made into my life.”

After his first enlistment, Farmer joined the U.S. Navy Reserve and enrolled in college. He earned his master’s degree in divinity from the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary in 1988 and was ordained the following year.

In 1991, Farmer was recalled to active duty for service during Desert Storm as a Navy Corpsman, where he served at a fleet hospital in Awali, a small island in the Persian Gulf.

In 1995, he returned to active duty as a commissioned officer and served the next 15 years as a Navy Chaplain. As expected, his career took him around the world.

In 2010, Lt. Cdr. Farmer, then the Command Chaplain at Marine Aircraft Group 13, retired from the Navy at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, Arizona.

Along the way, Farmer says many inspired him to be the man he is today.

“There really are too many to name,” he said. “These men and women became my mentors.”

Like many veterans, Farmer doesn’t talk much about his combat experience, and reflects back to the many wounded service members he treated during Desert Storm.

It was a great career, punctuated by opportunities to see the world, and to serve and inspire others at home and abroad, but Farmer wouldn’t change a thing.

“I was afforded examples and models in leadership that I probably would have never been exposed to in Detroit,” Farmer said.

Like Farmer, Garcia came from humble beginnings. He grew up on a ranch near Weslaco, and for as long as he could remember, he wanted to be a Marine. There were two reasons for that.

“I wanted to get out of this small town and do something with my life, and my mom would tell me, ‘Join the military,’” he said. “I saw the commercials and the uniforms… That’s what finally got me. I shipped out three days after I graduated.”

After completing Marine boot camp in San Diego, Garcia went to school to become a field radio operator. It was a job that Garcia loved.

“The cool thing about my job was that I was able to get attached to a whole bunch of different units and see how different parts of the military worked,” he said.

He served on the U.S.S. Nassau during the first Gulf War, and later at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, before he was honorably discharged in 2003.

Garcia had only been a civilian again for a year when he decided to reenlist in the Army National Guard.

His tour of duty was only supposed to last a year, but his unit was activated for a yearlong tour in Afghanistan.

They were assigned to PRT Gardez, where they provided humanitarian aid. They helped to build schools and provided security for the children attending classes in those schools.

No one in Garcia’s unit was killed or seriously wounded during their Afghanistan deployment.

In May 2006, Sgt. Oscar Garcia returned home from his final deployment and was honorably discharged from the Army National Guard.

It’s been nearly 20 years since his last deployment, and Garcia said the decision he made at 17 to serve his country is one that he never regretted.

“I would do this again,” Garcia said. “It’s what made me. It’s what made me who I am today.”

Although he didn’t lose anyone close to him in combat when he served, Garcia said Memorial Day is special. It’s a lesson that he has instilled in his three children.

“It’s about what these men and women did,” Garcia said. “The point is that these guys gave their all for something we take for granted.”