Names of 34 veterans added to the Oviedo Veterans Tribute in Veterans Day ceremony

The flag above the Oviedo Veterans Tribute hung at half-staff on Nov. 11, moving lightly in the cool evening breeze as the sunset reflected pink and orange off of Center Lake. Veterans from different eras stood in small groups, some in uniform with medals, others in plain clothes, resting on walkers or canes. Families filled the space with children playing off to the side and relatives of all ages finding places to stand as the start time approached. The crowd grew steadily, quieting as people prepared to hear the 34 names that would be added to the tribute wall.

Wearing his uniform and military cap decorated with pins, Air Force veteran and American Legion Post 243 Commander Larry Kayne took the podium, the ceremony officially underway.

“Americans never forget and that’s the true spirit and meaning of Veterans Day,” Kayne said. “We come together today to honor the brave men and women who have served and are still serving in our Armed Forces since our nation’s founding 250 years ago.”

The Armed Forces Salute then played over the loudspeaker, prompting veterans across the plaza to join in with some calling “ooo-rah,” and others singing lines of their branch hymns. 

Through tears of gratitude, Kayne shared how privileged he is to do what he does. “It’s amazing,” he said. “Because I get choked up and I am thrilled to death that people have come up to me and said, ‘This was fantastic. Thank you for what you guys do. Thank you to the city for what they’re doing.’”

Among those present at the ceremony was Lynda Visco, who watched as the name of her late father, Anthony Visco, was read aloud. “I cried through the whole thing and I’m still emotional,” she said. “I think this is beautiful. I’m speechless, to be honest, I don’t know what to say.”

Days before the ceremony, Visco described how her father was reluctant to talk about his experiences during the war, sharing them only later in life. He served in the Army Air Forces and was trained as a B-17 gunnery instructor.

“He was supposed to go to the Pacific, but they sent him to the Atlantic and they didn’t have the airplanes [at the base],” Visco said. “Everyone on base had something to do, but he was separate from them, so he realized he was never going to get back home unless he flew missions. He had to individually volunteer for every mission to get on a plane.”

One mission in particular stayed with him for the rest of his life.

“The plane was so badly shot up that there were only two planes that landed out of all the ones that took off,” she said. The engine covers were shot off, the propellers damaged and the ball-turret section exposed him to freezing air. He developed a lifelong sensitivity to cold because of it, something he dealt with until his passing in 2016 at age 92.

Her father also survived a turn of fate.

She said that when her father first arrived in England, he and a friend had reached the base together. Her father wanted to stay in England while his friend wanted to go to France, but the assignments were reversed. Her father was shipped out and his friend remained behind. “The first flight [his friend] went out on, he was killed,” she said, noting that it would have been her father on that plane had their roles been switched.

“I would not be talking to you today,” Visco said.

Another story surprised her years later. Her father once claimed he crossed the Atlantic on the Queen Elizabeth, a detail she initially doubted. After doing her research, she learned he had indeed traveled on one of the ship’s first troop-carrying voyages, even finding a photograph online of the vessel leaving New York Harbor with her father on board. “To have that picture is just awesome,” she said.

After the ceremony, she stood quietly for a moment, tears in her eyes. “It was beautiful, it showed respect to all the services and none were left out,” she said.

Nearby, Fred Bender stood watching the ceremony with family members. Bender said he served in the Marine Corps during the Vietnam War from 1966 to 1969. He said he was at the Battle of the Khe Sanh combat base by the DMZ and remembered the harsh conditions he and his fellow Marines had to endure.

Bender said that he and roughly 6,000 Marines on the base were outnumbered by 40,000 North Vietnamese Regulars, fighting for over 77 days without extra clothes, showers and very little food. “They had to parachute our ammo and food into us,” he said. “We took about 40,000 incoming rounds. We averaged about 500 rounds a day.”

He said the battle remained vivid in his memory, especially the constant proximity of incoming rounds. “It was a small combat base,” Bender said. “Every round that came in, you heard it.”

The news of being honored on the tribute wall came as a shock to him, having never been recognized for his time in Vietnam in the past. “The war was a long time ago and I’ve been back a long time,” Bender said. “I’ve never been honored publicly or anything. So when I heard about this, I thought it was really nice.”

A fellow Vietnam veteran, Elton R. Hogan, watched as families approached the wall as he and his son, Andrew Hogan, were both being honored.

Elton was drafted into the Vietnam War, saying, “Uncle Sam grabbed me up out of college and threw me in.”

Elton was stationed at Fort Benning, Georgia, never actually going to Vietnam during the war. He emphasized that he and others like him refer to themselves as “Vietnam-era veterans,” not wanting to take any credit for those who went overseas and fought.

“I was assigned stateside the whole period,” Elton said. “I do not want to take one ounce of credit for the war side of it because they fought it.”

Standing closer to the tribute wall was Marialana Kinter, a Navy veteran and current student at the University of Central Florida, majoring in political science. Kinter served eight and a half years and attended after seeing someone from her Veterans of Foreign Wars post share the event.

“I figured this was a beautiful way to honor those in our community who have served.” – Navy veteran Marialana Kinter

As she watched families react to the reading of names, she described what the moment meant to her. “It’s an amazing reminder of why we stepped up to serve,” she said. “Coming together with everybody’s families and complete strangers and just feeling the sense of community in the air reminds me of why I did it.”

Kinter spent much of her service on the USS Nimitz, including what was the longest carrier deployment since the Cold War, going 341 days without a single port call, covering the South China Sea, Oman, the Middle East and the waters off Somalia.

She remembered the care packages that arrived mid-pandemic. “We would get these care packages from complete strangers,” she said. “It was the most stressful time anyone globally had experienced and they were taking the time to send us things. That constantly reminds me that this is worth it.”

As night settled over the tribute and temperatures began to drop, families and veterans continued observing the newly engraved names, some running their fingers across the surface, while others stood back, taking everything in from afar.

The memory of the event will stick with Kayne. “To be able to honor these people that are now on there and let them know they are heroes, you can’t find enough words to express how it makes you feel.”