Memorial Event In D.C. to Feature Local Mother

MILLVILLE -- Invitations to memorial services come in regularly for the Walkup family, even more than three years after Air Force Staff Sgt. Thomas A. Walkup Jr. was killed in Afghanistan.

While family members can't go to all, one taking place Sunday in the nation's capital is something special not only for Walkup's relatives, but for 389 other families.

Millville resident Patricia Walkup, mother of Staff Sgt. Walkup, is to be on stage as the symbolic survivor for all 390 American personnel killed in Afghanistan since October 2001.

The dead from Afghanistan and Iraq are being remembered with the fallen from other wars at the annual Time of Remembrance observance.

The event is held at the Washington Monument. More than 3,000 attended last year at the inaugural event.

"They sent me an invitation from the White House, and I responded in March," Walkup said Thursday. "They called me in April to ask if I would represent the Air Force and the fallen in Afghanistan. I said I would be honored."

In 2000, Congress established the White House Commission on Remembrance out of concern not enough attention was directed on Memorial Day to veterans.

Sunday's 90-minute observance includes a Heritage of Sacrifice segment, during which relatives of casualties from each American war, including the Revolutionary War, gather on stage.

"I'm getting really excited about it," Patricia Walkup said.

Sgt. Walkup was 25 when he died in a helicopter accident Nov. 23, 2003, near Bagram, Afghanistan.

Walkup was a flight engineer on a MH-53J Pave Low helicopter, part of the 20th Special Operations Squadron.

The helicopter crashed not long after leaving Bagram Air Force Base on its way to support a military operation. Four others were killed in the crash, and five injured.

IF YOU GO

A Time for Remembrance starts at 3 p.m. and runs through 4:30 p.m. Sunday at the Washington Monument. For more information, Internet users can go to www.remember.gov or www.defenselink.mil.