New Bradenton memorial being planned for military members lost in combat since 1990

There may be no more searing reminder of the cost of war than putting a face on service members who made the ultimate sacrifice.

At least eight Bradenton-area soldiers and Marines have died in Iraq or Afghanistan since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Young, idealistic and brave, they are among the 1 percent who stepped forward to defend the country after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Those attacks claimed nearly 3,000 innocent lives.

On April 16, 2004, Marine Pfc. Christopher Cobb, a 19-year-old 2003 Bayshore High School graduate, died in Ramadi, Iraq. He was one of eight Marines killed in the ambush.

Cobb is believed to be the first of member of the U.S. armed forces from the Bradenton area to die in battle after the Sept. 11 attacks. He had been a member, with his mother, Sheila Cobb, of the Oneco American Legion Post.

After his death, the name was changed to the Christopher Cobb American Legion Post 312.

The most recent to die was Spc. 4 Patrick Lay, a 2008 Braden River High School graduate. He and four other members of his Army unit were killed in Afghanistan in 2011 by the blast of an improvised explosive device.

Also mourned:

• Army Pfc. Christopher North, 21, a 2003 Lakewood Ranch High School graduate who died in Baghdad in 2007.
• Army Staff Sgt. John L. Hartman Jr., 39, a 1984 Manatee High School graduate, who died in Baghdad in 2006.
• Army Staff Sgt. Paul Mardis Jr., 27, a 1997 Palmetto graduate, and Army Green Beret who died in Walter Reed Army Hospital in 2004 of wounds suffered near Mosul, Iraq.
• Marine Lance Cpl. Scott Dougherty, 20, a 2002 Bayshore High School graduate, who died in 2004 near Al Anbar Province, Iraq.
• Army Spc. Justin Schmidt, 23, a 1998 graduate of Manatee High School who attended Bayshore for three years, and was killed in 2004 in Baghdad.
• Army Staff Sgt. Fred Miller, 27, a New Jersey native, whose wife, Jamie Sonekeo Miller, was raised in Bradenton, died in September 2003 in Ramadi, Iraq.

• Army Sgt. James Darrough, 38, a 1993 Manatee High School graduate, was killed in Afghanistan on October 29, 2011.

Movement is afoot to honor their service with a monument in Bradenton’s Veterans Park.

America’s other wars, including World War I, World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War, are memorialized there, but there is nothing to honor military sacrifice and service since Desert Shield in 1990.

Lee Washington, Manatee County’s veterans service officer, will be heading the effort with the help of an intern to engage with families on ideas for the memorial and to recognize all fallen service members.

“The results of the study should be presented to the Manatee County Commission by the end of the year,” Washington said.

Families who have lost loved ones serving the U.S. military since 1990 are invited to contact Washington at 941-748-4501, ext. 3648.

“It hits home,” Ronald DeGlopper, commander of Christopher Cobb American Legion Post 312, said of Memorial Day, and the realization that those who gave their lives were sons and daughters, husbands and wives, fathers and mothers. “It’s not just a number.”

Carl Hunsinger, the outgoing chair of the Manatee Veterans Council, served three tours in Iraq. In 2004, he and the members of his gun truck team had just celebrated the 21st birthday of Carl L. Anderson Jr. when Anderson was killed in a roadside bomb attack.

Last year, on what would have been Anderson’s 35th birthday, Hunsinger met with his parents in South Carolina.

Grief-stricken family members want to make sure their loved one’s sacrifice is not forgotten. The Andersons were happy to see Hunsinger during a Flags for Fallen Military ceremony for their son.

But the visit also did something good for the retired Air Force chief master sergeant.

“It was one of the most therapeutic things that have happened for me,” Hunsinger said.

This story was originally published May 23, 2019 at 8:18 AM.