By MADDY VITALE
Susan Price became emotional Saturday when she addressed the crowd during the opening ceremony for the Walk for the Wounded in Ocean City.
She spoke about how her son died a hero in a life that was cut short before he could fulfill all of his goals and dreams.
Price’s son, Gunnery Sergeant Aaron Michael Kenefick, was killed in Afghanistan on Sept. 8, 2009 at age 30. He was a highly decorated member of the United States Marine Corps.
“My Marine son was a star athlete and could have gone to college on a scholarship,” Price said. “He was highly decorated. He was known as a Marine’s Marine.”
Kenefick loved to mentor and had a toughness, but also a compassionate side, to guiding his fellow servicemen, she noted.
“He used to say, ‘Momma, I know how to build a man up without breaking him down,’” she recalled.
Price, of Tampa, Fla., a National Gold Star mother, spoke about how her story is no different than so many others: families torn apart with the loss of service men and women.
The ceremony at the Music Pier kicked off the Walk for the Wounded event. It featured a three-mile walk from the Music Pier at Eighth Street to 14th Street.
Army Chief Warrant Officer Trevor Jenni sang the National Anthem during the ceremony with a little help from his daughter to the applause of the audience.
Dignitaries who attended the ceremony included Ocean City Councilmen Keith Hartzell, Michael DeVlieger and Antwan McClellan.
Money raised from the Walk for the Wounded goes to support Operation First Response, an organization that has helped thousands of military families with both financial and emotional support to wounded soldiers and their loved ones.
Price and the other featured speaker, Lt. Col. Shoshannah B. Lane, who served in Iraq, each gave heartfelt stories of their experiences.
Lane served in Iraq in support of Iraqi Freedom, in Bagram, Afghanistan, to support Operation Enduring Freedom, and as the Strategic Outreach Officer for the Chief of Staff of the Army in the Pentagon.
She is a highly decorated soldier, awarded the Bronze Star Medal, the Meritorious Service Medal, Air Medal, Army Commendation Medal, Army Achievement Medal, the Combat Action Badge, Senior Aviator Badge, Parachutist Badge, and Air Assault Badge
But she spoke as if she was just an ordinary person. Lane attended Absegami High School in Galloway Township. And for the last 24 years she has served in the military well.
Although she grew up in a military family, she did not have any real interest in going into the Army until she got a brochure in the mail.
“I thought it would be cool,” she said. “Over the years my perspective changed. For some it is a way to go to college. For some it is a means to support a family.”
For Lane, it is because she believes in serving her country. “We do not give allegiance to kings or queens, or even a president,” she told the audience.
Rather, the military serves an ideal and stands for freedom, she said.
Her brother, who was in the military, suffered a traumatic brain injury. Operation First Response helped restore his hope.
“Now, he looks forward to each new day,” Lane said.
Emcee of the ceremony, Army Staff Sgt. Patrick Carney, who spent eight years of his military service in Iraq, addressed the two women speakers after they finished. Carney, of Northfield, a married father of two, did two tours of duty in Iraq, and was honorably discharged for medical reasons.
Carney works to help other veterans, as a veteran community outreach specialist for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, along with his K-9 companion dog, Henry.
“I thank you both for your beautiful words. I am humbled to be in your presence today,” Carney told Price and Lane.
Nick Constantino, a senior advisor of Operation First Response, commended the speakers for their courage and strength.
“I think they both did a wonderful job telling their stories to the crowd,” he noted. “I think Susan Price, a Gold Star mother, opened the eyes to what happens to those families who lose loved ones in the military. We are proud to support those families.”
Operation First Response founder Peggy Baker said, “We are the boots on the ground on the home front. It is up to us to never forget our fallen and our Gold Star families.”
Veterans have also received help from Ocean City businesses such as Playland’s Castaway Cove, which to date has raised $17,000 for Operation First Response.
As the hundreds of family members, service men and women and their supporters lined up to start the walk, three veterans, two who served in World War II and one from Vietnam led the Walk for the Wounded to the applause of the onlookers.
