In remembrance

In Leonardtown, respects paid to those who have fallen

Friday, Nov. 13, 2009

By JAY FRIESS

Staff writer

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Staff photos by REID SILVERMAN

Cpl. Margaret Smolarsky, right, comforts Cindy and Greg Lohman as they view the wreath they laid Wednesday at the Leonardtown veterans memorial in honor of their son, Sgt. Ryan Patrick Baumann, who died last year in Afghanistan.

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Photographic memories of Sgt. Ryan Patrick Baumann who died last year in Afghanistan lay within a Veterans Day wreath placed at the memorial in Leonardtown by his parents, Cindy and Greg Lohman.

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Cindy and Greg Lohman lay a wreath, with the help of county commission President Francis Jack Russell (D), in honor of their son Sgt. Ryan Patrick Baumann during a Veterans Day ceremony in Leonardtown. Baumann died last year in Afghanistan.

In a cold, driving rain, local, state and federal officials gathered Wednesday on the square in Leonardtown to lay wreaths on the veterans memorial and pay respect to St. Mary's County's fallen servicemen.

The parade that was supposed to precede it was canceled, but the wreath ceremony went on. After all, there was a tradition to uphold.

"We have been laying wreaths now for 88 years," said Leonardtown Mayor J. Harry Norris III later in the much drier Leonard Hall Recreation Center, where the ceremony continued.

"We didn't have [nice weather], but the spirit was here," said Sen. Roy Dyson (D-St. Mary's, Calvert, Charles). "Remembrance and respect, that's what this is all about."

Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md., 5th) said that Veterans Day "is, in fact, the recommitment of ourselves to this [war] effort."

After noting that three young men from St. Mary's County have been killed in the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts, Hoyer also noted that the 13 people who were killed in the Fort Hood shooting in Texas last week died because they had chosen to serve their country.

Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin (D-Md.) also acknowledged the victims of the shooting, and then highlighted the recent 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Iron Curtain.

"We have been successful thanks to the efforts of our volunteer men and women," Cardin said.

Capt. Andrew Macyko, commander of Patuxent River Naval Air Station, urged the audience to prepare for the return of veterans who suffer invisible wounds from brain trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder.

"There's a real need to educate the community to the challenges" of veterans with psychological injuries, Macyko said and urged the audience and local officials to "get educated about the needs of our returning vets."

jfriess@somdnews.com

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