The Bowling Green Memorial Day Planning Committee is planning on conducting Memorial Day Services on Monday, May 29. Lieutenant Colonel (US Army, Retired) Andrea Adams will deliver the keynote address at the Memorial Day Service at Oak Grove Cemetery and Wood County Memory Gardens 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.” Father Tom McQuillen, pastor of St. Aloysius Catholic Church, will serve as chaplain, and Mayor Michael Aspacher will present Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.
Logan’s Orders will be presented by Joseph Fawcett, Global War on Terrorism veteran. Herbert Dettmer will recite “Call to Remember.” The winner of the VFW Paul C. Ladd Post 1148 Voice of Democracy contest, Madeline Desmond, will be reciting “Why Is the Veteran Important.”
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 High Road will be at 1 p.m.
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.
LTC Andrea Adams was born in Fremont, and graduated from Lakota High School in 1993. She enlisted in the Army in 1993, as a Signals Intelligence Analyst, and served in the 504 th Military Intelligence Brigade, Fort Hood, Texas, and the 532nd Military Intelligence (MI) Battalion, 501st MI Brigade Camp Humphrey’s, Korea.
After her four-year enlistment, Adams transitioned into the Ohio Army National Guard Medical Detachment as a combat medic while attending nursing school at the University of Toledo. In 2002 she earned her Bachelors of Science in Nursing and in 2003 received her direct commission into the Army Nurse Corps where she continued to serve in the Ohio National Guard Medical Detachment.
In 2012 she continued her civilian education and earned her Masters of Science in Nursing from the University of Toledo Nursing School and received her Family Nurse Practitioner license. Her deployments include an Ohio Army National Guard Medical support mission to El Salvador in 2009 and to Kuwait in 2013 with the Ohio Army National Guard’s 371st Sustainment Brigade in support of Operation Joint Endeavor.
Adams retired from the Ohio Army National Guard in 2020 with 27 years of total Army service. Her awards and decorations include the National Defense Service Medal, the Global War on Terrorism Medal, the Army Commendation Medal, Meritorious Service Medal and the Overseas Service Ribbon.
Adams currently resides in Bowling Green with her husband, Colonel (Retired) Stephen Ledbetter, her daughter Maddy Adams (17) and her dog, Bean. She works at Mercy Hospital in Toledo, as a nurse practitioner in the Neurological Science Department.
