Navy SEAL Museum Ft. Pierce

Memorial Day Ceremony

31 May 2021

Who Have Died in the Line of Duty While in Service to our Country. With Great Admiration and Respect. Long Live The Brotherhood.

Memorial Day Ceremony Schedule

8:00 AM
Beyond The Teams’ Beach Arrival, Culminating a 300-Mile Paddle in Support of the Museum’s Trident House Charities Program

8:30 AM
Flag Retirement Ceremony

9:00 AM
Memorial Day Ceremony

National Anthem
Cynthia Watkins Pishdad, LTC.U.S.A (RET)

Welcome
Grant Mann, USN SEAL Commander (Ret.), Museum Executive Director

Invocation
Rev. Mike Shockley, Chaplain USN (Ret)

Keynote Speaker
Grant Mann Introduces Sara Wilkinson, NSW Gold Star and Surviving Spouse

Wreath Laying | Taps | Unveiling of Names
Glenn Curtis Acker
David Earl Billings
Christopher Paul Brittingham
David Richmond Metcalf
Sean Patrick Sheehy
Chad Michael Wilkinson

Dedication of Living Beach
Rick Kaiser, USN SEAL Master Chief (Ret), Museum Chief Operating Officer

Retirement of Colors
St. Lucie West Centennial High School Navy JROTC

Service Conclusion
Rev. Mike Shockley

The Museum’s annual Memorial Day Service is held outdoors at our Memorial Wall. It is open to the public and free of charge. Admission into the Museum is complimentary following the ceremony. The Museum opens at 8:00 AM and will close at 12:00 noon on Memorial Day.

 

Sara Wilkinson grew up the youngest child in a military family. Traveling the globe and attending over 15 schools before graduating prepared her for a life married to Navy SEAL, Chad Wilkinson. Her upbringing allowed her to understand the stress, high cycle time of deployments and frequent training trips, while furthering to instill her independence and resilience.

In addition to supporting her husband’s career, Sara has been working in the fitness industry for 20 years. Becoming a gym owner in the Virginia Beach area led her to being recruited for its larger organization, CrossFit, LLC. As a course supervisor, she spent the last eight years traveling the globe: public speaking, upholding the standards of certification and instilling community and camaraderie, regardless of time zones and language barriers. She holds a Bachelor of Science within the College of Health and Human Performance from the University of Florida.

Her husband served 21 years as an active duty Navy SEAL with more than 10 deployments. Unfortunately, Chad succumbed to the affects of PTSD, TBIs, and blast wave injuries leading him to die by suicide Oct. 29, 2018 and leaving behind Sara and their two teenage children.

She has seen firsthand the negative experiences among the SEAL community specific to multiple combat deployments, high cycle times, and too many friends lost, leaving lasting stress on the operators and their families. Sara fully intends to use her voice and her story to change the narrative and the number to this veteran suicide epidemic.

Beyond the Teams

Beyond the Teams is a group of retired Navy SEALs who’ve teamed up to undertake a new kind of mission. Together, they conduct fundraising events for organizations and causes that help people with physical disabilities, cultural disadvantages, and practical needs going unmet because they are the “little guys.”

Their service to their community continues Beyond The Teams as they paddle a six-man outrigger canoe almost 300-miles from Key West to Fort Pierce, Florida in support of the National Navy SEAL Museum and its Trident House Charities Program outreach.
www.beyondtheteams.org