4 Maryland Soldiers To Be Honored At Memorial Day Ceremony

BALTIMORE COUNTY, MD — Four Marylanders who have been killed in the past 14 months will be remembered on Monday, May 29, in a ceremony at Dulaney Valley Memorial Gardens.

It marks the 50th annual Memorial Day ceremony at the venue in Baltimore County, where an area called the Circle of Immortals was dedicated in 1967 as a place for Maryland's fallen.

This year the fallen soldiers who will be recognized were killed in Jordan, Louisiana and Afghanistan.

• Airman 1st Class Nathaniel H. McDavitt of Severna Park was killed in Jordan by the Islamic State on April 15, 2016.
• Private First Class Victor Stanfill of Fulton died from injuries during a live-fire training exercise at Fort Polk, Louisiana, on May 10, 2016.
• Staff Sgt. Adam S. Thomas of Takoma Park was killed by an improvised bomb blast during a mission against the Islamic State's Afghan branch on Oct. 5, 2016.
• Sgt. First Class Allan E. Brown of Takoma Park died on Dec. 6, 2016, from wounds suffered in a suicide bomb attack in Afghanistan the previous month.

Staff Sgt. Mark De Alencar of Edgewood will be honored at the 2018 ceremony; he was killed by enemy fire while in combat in Afghanistan on April 8, 2017.

Astronaut Reid Wiseman will be the keynote speaker at Monday's ceremony, where dignitaries and other officials and local groups will be in attendance.

Alan Walden of the American Flag Foundation will emcee the event. Congressman C.A. "Dutch" Ruppersberger III and Brigadier General Sean M. Casey will provide memorial addresses.

There will be special programs and photographs showing the first ceremony at Dulaney Valley Memorial Gardens from 1967. In addition, Maryland's 9/11 Rolling Memorial will be present as a special tribute to the 69 Marylanders who died on September 11, 2001, and the 143 others who gave their lives in the war on terror, according to organizers.

The event is free and open to the public and will be held, rain or shine.

The Memorial Day ceremony will be at 10 a.m. on Monday, May 29, at Dulaney Valley Memorial Gardens, Circle of the Immortals, 200 East Padonia Road, Timonium, MD 21093.

Patch file photo.