The family of Army 2nd Lt. Leonard M. Cowherd Jr. has spent seven years on a quest to preserve the Culpeper County native's memory.
Since Cowherd was killed by a sniper's bullet in Iraq on May 16, 2004, his loved ones have worked to get his name on as many memorials as possible. As a result, he is now memorialized on several continents in granite, iron and wood, as well as on the Internet.
But those memorials, twin brother Charles R. Cowherd said Thursday, represent a "pale substitute" for someone who lost his life when he was just 22, newly married and one year removed from his graduation from the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, N.Y.
Charles Cowherd, a Virginia Military Institute graduate, was the featured speaker at Thursday's 2011 Virginia Wall of Honor ceremony. The Wall of Honor, established five years ago in the main lobby of the state office building at 900 E. Main St., memorializes Virginians who have died in the war on terrorism since 2000.
The wall contains the names of 233 Virginians, including 27 added this year. The Wall of Honor ceremony is held annually as part of the state's official Memorial Day weekend activities.
Leonard Cowherd, who had been in Iraq just a few months and was serving as a platoon commander in charge of 16 men and four tanks, was part of the original group on the Wall of Honor when it was unveiled May 24, 2007.
"Leonard, your name will never be erased from that wall and from our hearts," his twin told a group of several hundred who gathered for Thursday's midmorning ceremony on the south steps of the Capitol.
As volunteers handed out bottled water to the crowd in fast-rising temperatures, Gov. Bob McDonnell led the more than one-hour tribute.
"We do this every year because we understand that freedom is not free," McDonnell said.
The Virginians on the memorial "are people who love freedom so much that they were willing to sacrifice their own lives," the governor said.
McDonnell said the wall, established while he was Virginia's attorney general, is particularly significant for a state that is home to an estimated 835,000 veterans. McDonnell called the wall one of the many ways that "this grateful nation must always show its support and its eternal gratitude."
The ceremony included a 21-gun salute, the playing of taps, a helicopter flyover and a reading of the names of the latest additions to the Wall of Honor.
jmacenka@timesdispatch.com (804) 649-6804
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