The recent Avalon Park Fourth of July celebration was not only fun and games but held a special moment for all of us.
I’m talking about the memorial to honor the memory of U.S. Army Corporal Patrick D. Deans, who was killed in Afghanistan last year.
Deans was a graduate of Timber Creek High School, and he also served in the school’s Junior ROTC program.
After high school, he joined the U.S. Army and was deployed to Iraq in 2008.
He later became a member of the U.S. Army 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), 2nd Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team headquartered in Ft. Campbell, Ky.
It was in December 2010 when Cpl. Deans and five of his fellow soldiers were killed when a minibus loaded with explosives got past a security point in the Zhari district of Kandahar province.
The minibus piled onto a clay embankment just outside a building where the soldiers had gathered and exploded.
The blast collapsed the building, killing six American soldiers and wounding 11.
Cpl. Deans had already fulfilled his enlistment obligation in the Army and an assignment in Iraq. He volunteered to extend his enlistment to deploy with younger soldiers who were inexperienced in combat so he could guide them with the knowledge he had gained from his deployment to Iraq in 2008.
The Fourth of July memorial service included a presentation of Colors and a special plaque honoring the Deans family in the Avalon Park Community Garden.
Cpl. Deans was one of our own… not only for Avalon Park but for East Orlando, Florida and the country.
His family deserves our respect and our gratitude.
We hope a moment to remember his sacrifice and his family’s — and the recent tribute to him on the Fourth of July — will honor him.