Okaloosa County will honor service members this Veterans Day with a veteran appreciation event, the unveiling of a newly constructed Charters of Freedom monument and recognition of four new women veteran statues at Veterans Park.
- The event will begin at 8:30 a.m. on Nov. 11 at the Destin-Fort Walton Beach Convention Center on Okaloosa Island. The unveiling will follow at the nearby Women Veterans Monuments at Veterans Park, where guests are also encouraged to view the four newly placed statues on a self-guided tour.
The keynote speaker will be Col. Patrick Dierig, a retired Air Force veteran and former Commander of the 1st Special Operations Wing at Hurlburt Field.
“This is a special year with the nation’s Semiquincentennial to honor Veterans Day because we have the opportunity to recognize our veterans with a new monument that displays our nation’s founding values and we will now be able to view the newly placed women veteran statues at the park,” said Okaloosa County Commissioner Carolyn Ketchel.
The Charters of Freedom display contains a donated set of stainless-steel replicas of the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the Civil Rights Amendments. The replicas were donated by Foundation Forward Inc., a North Carolina-based nonprofit that has gifted similar sets to communities in 17 states, according to the county.
- The monument on Okaloosa Island will be the second of its kind in Okaloosa County. The first, located next to the Crestview Courthouse, was unveiled Nov. 3.
The Women Veterans Monuments at Veterans Park features 12 statues honoring women who have served the country. The statues were sculpted by artist Jon Hair.
The park sits on the Choctawhatchee Bay coastline, is home to native wildlife and vegetation and pays homage to the military’s role in shaping the community, according to the county. The county noted that Florida is home to one of the largest populations of women veterans in the nation, second only to Washington, D.C.
Four new statues were unveiled last year and were recently installed in their permanent locations at the park. The county provided the following background on the women they honor.
Florence Ebersole Finch
Born Loring May Ebersole in 1915 to a Filipino mother and an American father, Finch later became known as Florence. After high school, she worked as a stenographer with U.S. Army Intelligence Headquarters in Manila, where she met and married Charles Smith. She was widowed six months later.
Because she was half Filipino, Finch was able to hide her American sympathies from her new employer, the Japanese-controlled Philippine Liquid Fuel Distributing Union. Working with the Philippine underground, she diverted fuel and other critical items to the resistance and joined a network of private citizens smuggling food, medical supplies and clean clothes to prisoners of war.
After her activities were discovered, she was imprisoned and tortured until her release in February 1945. She never betrayed the resistance. When her U.S. Coast Guard superiors learned of her work in the Philippines, she was awarded the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Ribbon and later the Medal of Freedom.
Linda Bray
Linda L. Bray was born in 1960 in Sanford, North Carolina. She joined the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps in 1981 while enrolled at Western Carolina University, where she earned degrees in criminal justice and military science. She was commissioned as a second lieutenant in June 1983.
By December 1989, Bray had been promoted to captain and was serving as Commanding Officer of the 988th Military Police Company at Fort Benning. That year, she and her company deployed to Panama in support of Operation Just Cause.
The company’s initial mission was a routine operation to secure an attack-dog kennel on the edge of Panama City, but the kennel was heavily defended. Bray’s team used bullhorns and warning shots in an attempt to clear the area, but the defenders refused to surrender. The engagement that followed became a three-hour firefight involving grenades, machine gun fire and rifle fire. Three people were killed, and one of Gen. Manuel Noriega’s troops was captured.
Bray remained on active duty in the U.S. Army until 1991.
Sgt. Nicole L. Gee
Sgt. Nicole L. Gee of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit was a maintenance technician by specialty. During the evacuation of Kabul, she also communicated with and facilitated support for Afghan women and children.
On Aug. 27, 2021, while Gee was assisting with the evacuation, a suicide bomber killed 18 U.S. service members, including Gee, according to the county.
Iroquois Warrior, War of 1812
At least five Native women received military pensions for officially serving as cooks: Polly Cooper, Susan Jacob, Dinah John, Julia John and Dolly Schenandoah. The women enlisted in regiments of Indian volunteers and served honorably.
Though pension records list them as cooks, many served in combat alongside their husbands out of necessity, according to the county. The sculpture does not depict a specific woman because there are no paintings or photographs of these women from their time of service.
More information on the monuments at Veterans Park is available at myokaloosa.com/bcc/women-veterans-memorial.
