During his speech, Dr. Langston Cleveland urged the members of the community in attendance to remember and honor not only those who had given their lives in service of the country, but all who had served as well as their family and loved ones.

TIFTON — Residents of Tifton came together to honor the memory of those who gave their lives in the line of duty this past Monday.

City officials, veterans, and the loved ones of those who died in service of their country gathered at the Jack Stone Veteran’s Park in Downtown Tifton the morning of May 26 to take part in a Memorial Day ceremony organized by the city.

Mayor Julie Smith welcomed those in attendance to the ceremony, thanking them for joining her in remembering and honoring those who had fallen while serving.

“Today is a solemn day; in that solemn, there is sadness, but greater than that sadness is the respect, the gratitude, and the awe that we have for those that gave all,” Smith said. “Their courage, bravery, and their commitment to our great nation is what brings each and every one of us here today.”

Smith also encouraged the audience to practice Memorial Day beyond that Monday and remember the soldiers who had given their lives for their country every day.

Dr. Langston Cleveland, physical medicine and rehabilitation specialist at Tift Regional Medical Center, then took the stage as the guest speaker for the ceremony. Cleveland not only offered his gratitude to the fallen heroes of the country, but to their families for showing strength and resilience in the wake of the loss of those loved ones.

He recounted the impact that veterans and fallen soldiers had left on his life and upbringing, as well as how the experiences those veterans had gone through had thoroughly affected them, and urged the audience to remember the ones who had to see their loved ones off to serve and those who returned from service, scarred by the experience, as much as the soldiers who had lost their lives in the line of duty.

“They saw death as young kids, and some returned to an ungrateful culture without compassion,” Cleveland said. “Some are homeless, some are addicted to drugs and alcohol…I ask us to think about them also, as we come into this day.”

He left the crowd with a request to honor the efforts of all the men and women who have served and those who continue to serve to this day.

Tyron Spearman, overseer of the ceremony, then asked the veterans in the audience to stand and be recognized for their service, calling out each individual division of the military to honor their individual work.

As the event came to a close, Spearman called on members of the American Legion Post 21 to perform a 21-gun salute, followed by a performance of “Taps.” He encouraged those in the audience to pay their respects to an array of crosses near the stage, memorializing the deaths of the 13 soldiers killed in the Afghanistan withdrawal.