[Times photos: Stephen J. Coddington]
Albert Monzon, a Special Forces veteran, covers his heart as a bugler plays taps. About 6,000 were at Florida National Cemetery on Memorial Day.
Faye Potthoff visits the grave of her husband, Bernard, a veteran of World War II, Korea and Vietnam who died in 1999, with her daughter, Rebecca Mitchell, after the ceremony Monday.
BUSHNELL - Nearly two dozen relatives piled into four cars and drove from Miami to pay tribute Monday to Eric Ramirez, whose name they had emblazoned on the backs of baby blue T-shirts.
Ramirez died in Iraq in February and is buried at Florida National Cemetery, the site of a sun-drenched Memorial Day ceremony Monday morning during which Gov. Jeb Bush delivered the keynote address.
"We're showing the appreciation we have for Eric," said a bubbly 12-year-old Corrina Saenz.
Ramirez, 31, of San Diego was killed in an enemy ambush at Abu Gireb. He had grown up in the Orlando area.
His family was among an estimated 6,000 people who carted lawn chairs, umbrellas, flags and water bottles to the ceremony on the grounds of the 512-acre cemetery.
Speakers talked about the valor of those killed in Iraq and Afghanistan as they commemorated veterans of all wars. But World War II veterans were especially praised on the same weekend that the World War II Memorial was dedicated in Washington.
"Each loss reminds us to cherish the freedom our veterans have paid so dearly for," said Bush, who after the ceremony stayed for nearly 30 minutes of taking pictures and signing autographs.
People who annually make the Memorial Day pilgrimage to the national cemetery noticed upgrades to this year's ceremony, including music by the Florida National Guard Army Band, a release of doves and the speech by the governor.
Several in the crowd pointed to the unrest in Iraq and the upcoming presidential election as reasons for this year's makeover.
"It's usually much more modest," said Sue Angermeier of Lake County, who has attended with her husband, Harold, an Army veteran of World War II over the past seven years. "But, it's all the more reason to enforce the values we hold dear and continue in a positive way when things are going wrong."
The ceremony attracted such a crowd that Interstate 75 near the cemetery was clogged with cars adorned with veterans license tags and POW bumper stickers for an hour before the event began.
Charles Geiniman and his wife, Janice, made their first trip for the Memorial Day ceremony to honor their friend, Sgt. 1st Class Paul Smith, who died in Iraq in April 2003 and is nominated for the Medal of Honor, the military's highest award for valor. They joined a caravan of other motorcyclists from Tampa.
"When he died, that was such an awakening," said Geiniman, who served in the Marine Corps. "This is something we're going to do every year."
By the end of the nearly 90-minute ceremony, the summer sun had started to wear on some, including Amanda Byrd, the teenage daughter of Florida House Speaker Johnnie Byrd. The Plant City High School senior fainted from the heat. She had been handing out programs all morning.
"I think the sun was too much for her," said her mother, Melane Byrd.
