Since the dawn of Maryland as a British colony in the early 17th century, its farmers, millers, merchants, citizen-soldiers, and their diverse lines of descendants have taken up the mantle of patriotic service to ensure that freedom and security for themselves, their families, their state, and their country would endure in perpetuity.
Maryland’s veterans have stood with unwavering pride and patriotism, her sons and daughters have served with purpose and fought courageously in every conflict our nation has endured over its 400-year history. At the Northern Chesapeake Heritage Foundation, we have made it our mission to not only remember Maryland’s veterans, but to bestow special honor to those who never made it home, whose remains have been lost to history and whose whereabouts are known but to God.
We have begun to develop a discreet “Memorial Garden of Remembrance” at Green Mount Cemetery in Baltimore City, MD that will honor Marylander’s who have paid the ultimate price, but whose remains could not be brought home.
Our project will consist of a center piece consisting of a locally sourced stone boulder that will ultimately be surrounded by smaller stones affixed with memorial plaques honoring MIA veterans of our nations wars and conflicts who have ties to the Baltimore area. The large stone boulder will be affixed with a memorial plaque that honors all who have been lost.
We set our first memorial marker with the help of the United States Naval Academy Class of 1949 Alumni Association this month to honor one of their classmates, LTJG Richard H. Seth, who was lost on 25 Feb 1954 when the F2H Banshee fighter he was piloting crashed off the coast of Greece. He was a member of Fighter Squadron (VF) 141, flying from USS Randolph.
Our goal is to have the centerpiece of the Memorial Garden of Remembrance completed by early spring and to begin the process of adding additional individual memorial plaques for area MIA veterans.
We would like to ask our fellow veterans, friends and readers to join us in meeting this goal by donating to help honor area veterans who never made it home.
We thank everyone who has supported our efforts to recognize and honor Maryland’s veterans through our headstone procurement and placement program, and our special projects such as the Medal of Honor Plot, and the new Memorial Garden of Remembrance.
