Hundreds attend Memorial Day observances
Mark Tyler Voss, Milton A. Lee and Dennis Huffine — three names of perished military members repeated aloud Monday on Memorial Day.
The trio — Voss and Lee are locals — number among the 1.4 million Americans who have given their lives in armed service since 1776.
To honor the three and others, hundreds attended one of two Memorial Day ceremonies Monday, including at Veterans Plaza,
American flags wave Monday in front of veterans’ headstones in Boerne Cemetery, site of the Pvt. Bruno Phillips Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 688 Memorial Day ceremony.
Star photo by Jeff B. Flinn staged by American Legion Capt. Mark Tyler Voss Post 313, and at Boerne Cemetery, held by Pvt. Bruno Phillips Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 688.
Guest speakers at both remembrances reminded attendees about the meaning of Memorial Day: to honor the fallen.
“Memorial Day is a day of remembrance for those who died in service to our country,” said Betty Moseley Brown, a Marine Corps veteran from 1978-1992 speaking at the American Legion gathering at Veterans Plaza.
“Let our thoughts today be with the devoted men and women who put their lives on the line, as well as the families who bear the quiet burden of their sacrifice,” Moseley Brown said.
VFW 688 Gold Legacy Life Member Bob Worrall also reminded attendees of the distinctions that separate Memorial Day, Veterans Day and Armed Forces Day.
“Today we honor the 1.4 million who ... while serving, lost their lives. Some died in combat. Some by accident. Others from illness or disease,” Worrall said about Memorial Day. “But all were serving when they fell and all are honored, today.”
Veterans Day, observed Nov. 11, honors all members of the U.S. armed forces. Meanwhile, Armed Forces Day celebrates active-duty military personnel, usually on the third Saturday in May.
At Veterans Plaza, Marcy Voss was on hand for a wreath dedication in honor of her son, Mark, a Boerne High School alum who graduated from the United States Air Force Academy in 2008 and became a C-17 pilot.
In 2013, during Operation Enduring Freedom, Voss, 27, was one of three airmen killed on a refueling mission while supporting military operations in Afghanistan.
Worrall mentioned Voss and Lee, the latter who died during the Vietnam War “charging enemy bunkers, single-handedly, to alert his platoon of an impending ambush.”
Worrall also told of Huffine, a 19-year-old kid from Arkansas who saw service in Vietnam — “the new guy, as fresh as the brand-new set of jungle fatigues he was wearing.”
Worrall said Huffine quickly learned the ins and outs of service in the following weeks, which were punctuated by an increasing number of enemy contacts.
“For seven months, Dennis survived these dangers,” Worrall said, “and his plan to ‘get smart’ and ‘be smart’ seemed to be working — until it didn’t.”
On July 14, 1970, the 20-yearold Huffine’s rifle company was moving down the side of a steep mountain when it ran into an enemy bunker complex.
Huffine and his unit were sent to help move wounded comrades from the danger zone. Huffine stopped, took a breath in the humid, 95-degree weather — and was hit by a round to the chest, killing him instantly.
“He hadn’t done anything wrong. He wasn’t being careless. He was just in the wrong place, at the wrong time,” Worrall said.
He added Huffine’s name can be found on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., commonly called the Vietnam Wall.
“If you do visit the Vietnam Wall and have some extra time, look up Dennis. Tell him that on Memorial Day 2026, you and some of your friends in the small town of Boerne, Texas, gathered at a local cemetery,” Worrall said, to honor all veterans who have lost their lives in service to their country.
“And,” Worrall continued, “after honoring everyone who fell, we paused, for a moment and listened to his story. And by doing so, Dennis Huffine continues to be someone remembered.”
Moseley Brown said the country has been blessed with men and women willing to give their all for their nation.
“In every generation, brave Americans continue to step forward and take the oath of allegiance,” she said, “ready to defend our country and if necessary, give their lives for the sake of our freedom and the promise of our nation’s future.”
“In every generation, brave Americans continue to step forward.”
— Betty Moseley Brown
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