Fort Hood victims remembered at Rock Hill veterans' tribute

Charlotte Business Journal

Regional news

By MARIA KOTULA / NewsChannel 36 E-mail Maria: MKotula@WCNC.com

updated 9:19 p.m. ET Nov. 7, 2009

ROCK HILL, S.C. -- There was a sea of red, white and blue in Rock Hill Friday during a tribute ceremony, honoring American war veterans at the Glencairn Garden.

Many got choked up as their thoughts were also with the victims of the war zone created in Fort Hood, Texas, Thursday.

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"I was in WWII," said Carroll Wilkie. "I was drafted at the age of 18 and was scared to death, never been away from home."

The crowd was filled with war vets and those like 97-year-old Azilee Wilson, who came to feel closer to her husband.

"My husband is deceased and so he couldn't be here and so I wanted to be here," said Wilson.

The ceremony was planned months ago, but who could've imagined it would come just one day after the shooting rampage at Fort Hood.

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"Right here -- it was supposed to be over there, but not here, so I think we're probably going to have to put our priorities over here more than we have," said Wilkie.

It's the courage of soldiers that inspired Jennifer Rhodes to volunteer, handing out flags to hundreds, covering the crowd in stars and stripes.

"It's like when you see the pain and suffering with our troops even before they're deployed," she said. "We have so many people coming in to praise God and just be glad that God has blessed America, and that we have such a freedom here and wish that other people in the world could get a taste of that freedom."