Florida Boys State alum shares his passion to research and remember those interred at historic site.
On a steamy Florida Friday morning, 17-year-old Drew Garcia held the door open to USS Tampa American Legion Post 5 as rush-hour traffic buzzed along West Kennedy Blvd.
Garcia was there to welcome kindred spirits, having gotten a pass to miss first period at Jesuit High School down the street. Entering the historic post named for the U.S. Coast Guard cutter that was torpedoed in the Bristol Channel during World War I, killing 130, 24 of whom from the Tampa area, were some 50 American Legion Family members from across the country.
The volunteers had come to dig up, realign, scour and refresh stone grave markers that had sunk into the soft earth over the years. The 102-year-old Tampa Post 5 Cemetery was the object of the annual community-service project conducted during the 106th American Legion National Convention.
To Garcia, who had been sponsored for Florida American Legion Boys State by Post 5, the arrival of volunteers was a moment of honor for hundreds of veterans from a time gone-by who represent something more to him than a roadside blur. “They feel like friends of mine, someone I really care about, like grandparents,” he says.
Of the 732 graves in the cemetery, he has completed 20 biographies of those interred. He and classmate Paige Wilson launched the American Bios Project at school to collect more than just names, but photos and details about the lives of the fallen. Their goal is collect biographies of as many as possible.
Garcia and Wilson study public records, genealogy websites and other sources to ensure the profiles are accurate. “I take my time,” Garcia says. “I don’t want to publish anything that’s not true or hasn’t been thoroughly, thoroughly researched and thought through.” With plans for a dedicated website profiling the veterans buried at the American Legion Post 5 Cemetery, he and Wilson manage an Instagram account about the project and hope to share their discoveries through the American Legion-supported Veterans History Project, via the U.S. Library of Congress.
Garcia’s involvement with Post 5 came as a suggestion from his stepmother’s friend, Alyse Duffy, president of the American Legion Cemetery Corp. “They said Drew was looking for a project,” Duffy says. “I asked what his interests were, and they told me. I said, ‘Send him my way.’ We meet once a month, and we talk about the stories … his progress. He brings it to me. I ask him who he wants to research, and he will give me a name, and he’ll tell me why that person is important to him.”
The American Bios Project is already helping the cemetery corporation enhance its database. “We have 13 different countries, 37 different states represented,” Duffy says. “We have two people going back to the Spanish-American War. We can answer those questions, and this helps us collect the bios.”
Prior to the beginning of the project, Garcia was curious about the site but never really knew much about it. “We drove past this post every day,” he explains. “I saw the torpedo. I saw the cemetery. I didn’t know what it meant, but it always kind of piqued my interest. I was like, ‘Mom, what is that?’”
Now, he knows very clearly what it is and, more importantly, what it means.
As American Legion Family members walked the rows, cleaning markers, shoveling them out and straightening them, Garcia reflected on his love for the mission.
“My grandfather served in the Navy. He died when I was young, and I always wanted to know his story – about him. We knew a lot about his life, but I wanted to hear it from him. I think the real reason I do this project is I want to tell the stories of people who can’t tell their own. I think we live in a society today that kind of forgets very easily. When we walk by a cemetery, we just see a cemetery. We don’t see the 730-odd lives that lived.
“The reason I love to do this is not just because I love military history, or because I love history itself, but because I want to tell the stories of these individuals’ lives and really thank them for their service and what they have done for us.”
He and Wilson, vice president of the American Bios Project, are recruiting other students – and hopefully more schools – to join them. “We’re really expanding much quicker than I thought we would.”
As the heat and humidity bore down on the volunteer workers – assisted by Florida National Cemetery staff experts from Bushnell who joined the effort – Garcia visited the grave of Pvt. Frank Marston Jr., who came to Tampa as a member of the 1st Illinois Infantry Regiment in the late 19th century before deploying to Cuba in the Spanish-American War. “I love his story,” Garcia says, noting that Marston Jr. made Tampa his home after discharge, having spent months training there before deployment.
He visited the marker of Technical Sgt. George Edward Durland, who was one of “Keller’s Killers” with the 557th Bombardment Squadron of the 387th Bomber Group in World War II as a member of the Army Air Corps and later served during the Korean War for the then-new U.S. Air Force. “He flew over Normandy, the Battle of the Bulge, and many of the major air battles of the war. He has a really fascinating story.”
Brian Fuerst, a 20-year Sons of The American Legion Squadron 5 member, has a deep appreciation for the cemetery and honoring the fallen. A Gold Star Family member whose brother Joseph was killed in action in 2006 in Afghanistan, he is active in the cemetery corporation, which conducts major events there on Memorial Day and for Wreaths Across America.
Volunteer help from American Legion, Sons of The American Legion and American Legion Auxiliary conventiongoers from across the country is deeply appreciated, he says.
“It’s really great to see people come out here and care. We’re a really small, private cemetery. We volunteer our time. We come out at least once a year and clean the stones, but it’s really great to have people who are specialized and can show other people how to straighten out the stones, as they are today, and lift them back and make them look beautiful again … kind of spruce the cemetery back up.”
Twenty-seven-year Army veteran Steve Murin of St. Michael, Pa., Post 551, says it comes naturally for Legionnaires to honor those who came before them. “We did our part when we were in the service,” he said between shovelfuls of earth to straighten a marker. “We are just continuing it. We take care of cemeteries back home, veterans and even civilians. We place flags, of course, to honor our veterans.”
Twenty-eight-year Marine Corps veteran Timmothy Garrison of American Legion Post 27 in Missoula, Mont., agrees that work like this is in the DNA of veterans. “As a military member, we provide service to our country and when we retire, we say, ‘What’s next?’ It’s just that continued service to the community,” he said. “I also work with Scouting America and Girl Scouts USA. This is my fourth cemetery this year. I’m almost skilled labor at this. I care about cemeteries, but also, I lead youth. And I tell youth that this is a service to the community that’s important. And if I’m saying it, I should be doing it. So, it’s about demonstrating by example.”
Staff experts from the Florida National Cemetery at Bushnell were on hand for the Friday effort to assist with proper realignment of the markers. “All the stones getting pulled up and straightened is really great,” Fuerst says. “It’s a lot of work. We come out here every year to clean them and try to take care of them, but we don’t know anything about straightening them, or even have the manpower for that. We’re a really small post.” He said membership at Post 5 is currently about 120, with about 25 in the Auxiliary and 15 Sons.
Duffy, who did not serve in the U.S. Armed Forces but is a member of Auxiliary Unit 5, says she takes responsibility to care for the historic cemetery extremely seriously. “I feel this is my way of serving those who were given the opportunity to serve our country,” she says. “We want to … make sure to show that they have not been forgotten. Every single person here is in our hearts and in our minds.”
One of those veterans is Hollywood actor Rondo Hatton, who suffered a disease after the war “that caused the tissue in his face to start warping,” Fuerst explains. “He became the horror-movie actor that needed no makeup.” The post has a display to Hatton’s memory and an award named in his memory.
“This is one of the few American Legion cemeteries that I am aware of,” Fuerst says. “It’s really important that we hold onto that legacy and keep that family alive. Our post is about strengthening the family, strengthening the membership. We’re all about working together – the Legion, Auxiliary and Sons – in keeping our cemetery alive and keeping it in our hands as caretakers.”
Garcia understands.
“I get to walk through this cemetery every single week,” Garcia says. “It’s easy to forget these are actual individuals, veterans who were dedicated to service to our country. By doing this project, it helps me to remember that. It fills me with a sense of gratitude.
“This has definitely been transformative for me. It’s led me to think a lot about what I want to be remembered as. That’s how it’s kind of changed my life. I realize I want to be remembered for something, have a legacy of service … however that may look.”
Following the rainstorm-shortened work session, volunteers gathered inside the post home where American Legion corporate partner Wellcare provided lunch for the crew. Wellcare had also supplied caps, gloves and cooling towels prior to the cleanup.
Among the community-service project volunteers at the cemetery were American Legion Past National Commanders Denise Rohan and Mike Helm, along with American Legion Auxiliary Past National President Lisa Williamson. Current American Legion Auxiliary National President Trish Wared also appeared at the post home to thank the volunteers as they waited out the rainstorm.
Post 5 Commander Angel Valentine was impressed by the morning of hard work and camaraderie. “I love it. I’ve never seen anything like it. The heavy work with the stones … they did an excellent job. We appreciate it.”
- Convention