Two names added to Jacksonville’s Veterans Memorial Wall

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — This Memorial Day we remember those who paid the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom.

The city of Jacksonville held a virtual observance for a second year on Monday by releasing a pre-recording video at 8:00 a.m.

This year two names have been added to the Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Wall.

Quinton Jones with the U.S. Army and Jason Recker a U.S. Navy sailor.

They are joining the 1,700 names already here highlighting Jacksonville’s heroes.

Jones was a private first class in the Army and he tragically died in a car crash while on active duty in Colorado Springs.

Recker was deployed in Afghanistan and while overseas diagnosed with brain cancer. He returned home and passed away last year.

Harrison Conyers the Supervisor for the city’s Military Affairs and Veterans Department told me the city hosted a smaller ceremony for these families about a week ago laying down wreaths for their fallen service members.

The city told Action News Jax it made the decision to hold a virtual memorial day event back in March out of caution.

City leaders were worried that in this space it would be hard to practice social distancing.

“We could not provide the seating for the 3,000 people that typically come out for Jacksonville’s Memorial Day service, outside of Washington D.C. we have the largest memorial day observance in the country and there was just no way with the social distancing to be able to support them and keep everybody safe and we had to make the decisions,” Conyers said.

You can watch the full virtual ceremony below:

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