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Oconee Hill Cemetery

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Service and Sacrifice Themes of Veteran's Day Ceremony in Athens, Ga.

Retired U.S. Army Col. Michael Steele was the featured speaker.

  When Michael Steele was a walk-on football player at Georgia, Coach Vince Dooley named an award in his honor after Steele, a native of Statham. Through five football seasons and spring practices, Steele never missed a practice. The award is called--what else? The Steele Man Award, and he is the only person to have ever gotten it, Dooley said. The kind of drive and determination, pride and integrity that marked Steele's college football career could be seen in his military career, Dooley said, which began in ROTC at Georgia and ended with tours in Iraq and Afganistan. Dooley was introducing Steele to a crowd of people who gathered Monday at Oconee Hill Cemetery to remember the sacrifice and service of America's military veterans. Steele …

Friday, November 11, 2011

Veterans Day Remembered at Oconee Hill

More than 100 gather to remember veterans and their lives.

About 100 people gathered on a crisp Friday morning at the stone plaza of Oconee Hill Cemetery to remember the soldiers, sailors and marines who have fought and died for America. One of them, 29-year-old Josh Darnell, a native of Oconee County and a UGA graduate, spoke about his U.S. Army service in Afghanistan. That service ended for him with a devestating injury from a suicide bomber and for two men under his command, with death. He asked those in attendance to remember not the deaths of those in uniform, but their lives. The deaths of young men and women “are part of the endless cycle of war,” he said, and they have no meaning. What has meaning is their lives, which leave legacies of service and courage. When one is a soldier, "the …

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