FORT JACKSON, S.C. (Oct. 2, 2014) -- South Carolina Gold Star mothers and families gathered Saturday at the Lace House in Columbia in observance of Gold Star Mothers and Families Day, which was celebrated Sunday.
The event was hosted by Survivor Outreach Services and included guest speakers, music from the 282nd Army Band's jazz combo, free food, a raffle and a balloon release to conclude the day. The surviving family members of service members who have died since Sept. 11, 2001, released 50 balloons with golden stars attached to them. The families were given the opportunity to write a personal message to their fallen loved ones on the stars.
"We, as Americans, as a whole, should honor each and every day the service and sacrifice of those who wear the uniform," said Brig. Gen. Van McCarty, deputy adjutant general of the South Carolina National Guard, who was one of the guest speakers. "(Gold Star Mothers and Families Day) is a day that each of you honor and recognize every day. ... (Your service members) live in your hearts. They live in your minds. They live on through your other possible children, through you, through other relatives, through other friends."
McCarty said that one theme comes up frequently during his interactions with Gold Star families.
"The common thing I've heard is that we need to tell the story," he said. "Because it is an important story for the generation that's here today, for the generation that will be here tomorrow. They need to know and to understand the sacrifice that has been made by not only this generation of today, but the (by the) generations before."
He thanked the families for their sacrifices and reminded them that their sons and daughters did not die in vain.
"Yes, you had the dreams and aspirations for your children, and it probably was for a long life full of happiness doing great things," McCarty said. "But they did great things. They did what they loved doing - that was serving this nation, serving with their fellow Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines. They wouldn't have been anywhere else if it was their choice. They were doing their callings. And if the rest of us can go in our lives and say in the end, 'I did my calling,' then we've done all that we can do."
One of the Gold Star mothers in attendance was Deborah Whitsitt, whose son Geoffrey died in 2010 at the age of 21 in Afghanistan after his vehicle was attacked with an IED. Whitsitt, who serves as president of the South Carolina Gold Star Mothers organization, told other attendees about her struggles.
"Like the rest of you, I've never dreamed that I would be involved in anything like this," she said.
Whitsitt recalled that when the Army casualty notification officers arrived at her house she felt "like a chicken whose head had been cut off."
During her son's funeral, which happened to fall on her birthday, a Blue Star mother presented Whitsitt with a Gold Star flag.
"I remember saying, 'I don't want that flag. I'm not ready for that flag.' But this is the flag the Blue Star mothers gave me," she said.
Nowadays, Whitsitt hangs a banner in her window that includes the Gold Star and a Blue Star for Geoffrey's brother, who serves in the Navy.
She told the other mothers in attendance that losing a child will always hurt.
"You will always have a lump in your throat. There will always be triggers that set tears off," she said. "But you know what? I am a survivor. And every person who is sitting here is a survivor."
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