During this week’s regular council meeting for the City of Milton, the council unanimously approved a proclamation declaring August as ‘Purple Heart’ month.
After reading the proclamation, Mayor Wesley Meiss said the city has placed 10 Purple Heart signs throughout the city’s historical district.
“We are very proud of our Purple Heart recipients,” Meiss said. “We love our military and we are so thankful for those that serve and those that gave it all.”
The combat decoration is awarded to members of the United State Armed Forces who are wounded as an instrument of war at the hands of the enemy and posthumously to the next of kin in the name of those who are killed in action or die of wounds received in action, according to the PurpleHeart.org, the official website for the Military Order of the Purple Heart organization.
Representatives from the Pensacola Chapter of the Military Order of the Purple Heart (Chapter 566) received the proclamation on behalf of all Purple Heart recipients.
The organization’s Commander Jimmy Copeland was thankful for the city’s elected officials for recognizing the recipients.
“We all want to thank the City of Milton for what you are doing,” Copeland said. “We all are aware of the military that have lost their lives.”
Copeland, a longtime Milton resident, believes recognizing recipients of the Purple Heart will only increase patriotism both on a local and national level.
“It will allow the entire community to see that walking among us are those who were able to return home even after shedding their blood,” he said. “I believe that will encourage more patriotism in this town as we have seen in the past, it (will) also encourage it all over this nation.”
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: City of Milton honors Purple Heart recipients