PONCE INLET VETERANS MEMORIAL ASSOCIATION
Ponce Inlet Veterans Memorial
Veterans Day Ceremony
On Thursday, November 11, 2021, at 10:00 AM, the Ponce Inlet Veterans Memorial Association will celebrate Veterans Day with a ceremony at the Memorial at Davies Lighthouse Park. This November 11 ceremony pays tribute to those who serve or have served in the armed forces of the United States during any war and also during peacetime.
We are honored to have as our guest speaker Ed Jackson, one of the Ponce Inlet Veterans Memorial Association’s founding directors and a decorated U.S. Navy veteran of the Vietnam War. Also, there will be an Embry Riddle University ROTC color guard, the ACA Fella singers and a POW/Missing Man ceremony and a dedication and wreath laying. Please join us for this special time.
Veterans Information
We would like to extend an invitation to all local veterans and those who are still serving on active duty to join us. The Association is a non-profit 501c(19) organization and our mission is to maintain our Memorial and promote veterans activities in our community. Dues are $20 per year and meetings are held at the Ponce Inlet Community Center at 7:00 PM on the second Tuesday each month, except during the summer. Contact Jim Hinson at 386-760-5448 for additional information or to obtain a membership form.
In Remembrance of Herb Fix
Colonel Herbert Melvin Fix, U.S. Marine Corps (retired) passed this life to the next on August 22, 2021. The world is a better place to have had Herb in our midst and we have all been touched by this wonderful man and Marine’s Marine. Herb was a long-time member of the Ponce Inlet community and was one of eight veterans who met back in 2010 to plan the Ponce Inlet Veterans Memorial. He is one of the founding directors of the Association and was a prime mover in the planning and in the fund raising to build the memorial. Herb was also a contributing member of the Ponce Inlet Lion’s Club where, for years, he directed the White Cane contribution events throughout the area.
Herb is a Marine legend. As commanding officer of the helicopter squadron on board the aircraft carrier USS John Hancock in 1975 his squadron evacuated the US Nationals, first from Cambodia, and then when South Vietnam fell to the North Vietnamese, his squadron evacuated the US Nationals from the US Embassy in Saigon. His Marines were flying untold hours during the evacuation of Saigon as their mission was to get all the Americans out. And they flew until they successfully evacuated everybody with the Marine Security Guard detachment being the last ones to leave.
For his efforts as the squadron commander Herb was immortalized for his achievement in South Vietnam. He won the prestigious Harmon Trophy in 1975, joining the company of other recipients like Charles Lindbergh, Howard Hughes, and Chuck Yeager. The trophy is awarded annually to a single aviator worldwide and is kept at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum. But as is typical of Herb, he said, “I was honored, truly honored, but I don’t consider that I did anything exceptional. I just did my job.”
Herb Fix is truly an American hero. But more importantly, he was one of the nicest and most decent men to ever serve our community. He loved his family, his community, and his country. We are going to sorely miss this man and Marine.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page 1 – Town of Ponce Inlet
Page 2 – Citizens for Ponce Inlet (C4Pi)
Page 3 – Garden Club of Ponce Inlet
Page 4 – Ponce Animal Welfare (PAW), Women’s Club
Page 5 – Ponce Inlet Lions Club
Page 6 – PICCI – Ponce Inlet Community Center
Page 7 – Ponce Inlet Lighthouse Assoc.
Page 8 – Ponce Inlet Veterans Assoc.
Page 9 – Marine Science Center
Page 10 – Ponce Church