The Bowling Green Memorial Day Observance Committee is planning on conducting Memorial Day Services on Monday, May 27. Colonel (U.S. Army, Retired) Stephen Ledbetter, Commander of Paul C. Ladd VFW Post 1148, will deliver the keynote address at the Memorial Day Service at Oak Grove Cemetery and at Wood County Memory Gardens Cemetery.
The Memorial Day Service will be held at Oak Grove Cemetery starting at 10:30 a.m. following the Memorial Day Parade through Bowling Green stepping off at 10 a.m. The service at Wood County Memory Gardens Cemetery on Liberty Hi Road will be at 1 p.m. Veterans and patriotic units are invited to join in the parade.
At the service in Oak Grove Cemetery, the national anthem will be performed by the Bowling Green High School Band. Vocalist Evvie Van Vorhis will sing the “Armed Forces Medley” and “Let There Be Peace on Earth.”
Thomas “Thom” Headley, deacon at St. John XXIII Catholic Church, will serve as chaplain, and Bowling Green Mayor Michael Aspacher will present Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. Logan’s Orders will be presented by Lori Tretter, Bowling Green Municipal Administrator, and Herbert Dettmer will recite “Call to Remember.”
The winner of the VFW Paul C. Ladd Post 1148 Voice of Democracy contest, Zane Barber, will be reciting “The Greatest Attribute of Democracy.”
Ledbetter, the keynote speaker, received his commission into the United States Army Transportation Corps, through the University of Tennessee at Martin Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) in December of 1993, where he received a Bachelor of Science in Secondary Education.
His overseas assignments include Germany, where he deployed to Bosnia, Croatia, and Hungary in support of Operation Joint Endeavor; two combat tours in Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom; and a tour in Kuwait in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.
Ledbetter served in a variety of command and staff positions, both within the U.S. and overseas, during his over two decades of Army active duty service. This included tours at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, in the 82nd Airborne Division and Army Special Operations Command; at Fort Eustis, Virginia, where he commanded the 53rd Transportation Battalion; in Washington, D.C., at the Pentagon where he served as the military assistant for the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Manpower and Reserve Affairs; and in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, where he commanded Letterkenny Army Depot.
His military education includes the Transportation Officer Basic Course, Air Assault School, Airborne School, Jumpmaster School, the Command and General Staff College and the National Defense University Eisenhower School where he earned a masters in National Defense Resource Strategy.
Ledbetter’s awards and decorations include: the Legion of Merit (with oak leaf cluster), the Bronze Star (two oak leaf clusters), the Meritorious Service Medal (four oak leaf clusters), the Army Commendation Medal (two oak leaf clusters), the Army Achievement Medal (four oak leaf clusters), the National Defense Service Medal with Bronze Star, the Iraqi Campaign Medal, the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, the Armed Forces Service Medal, the Army Service Ribbon, the Overseas Service Ribbon, the NATO Medal, the Air Assault Badge, the Senior Parachutist Badge and the Canadian Parachutist Badge.
He retired in February 2020, after 26 years of active duty in the U.S. Army. He is married to Lieutenant Colonel (Retired) Andrea Adams and they have three children.
In case of inclement weather, the program will be held in the Veterans Memorial Building in Bowling Green City Park at 10:30 a.m.
Paul C. Ladd VFW Post 1148 will be open at 8 a.m. on Monday, with coffee and doughnuts for veterans participating in the parade and services.
