Wisconsin’s second annual Folds of Honor Invitational was held at the Club at Lac La Belle in Oconomowoc, WI, and presented by the Neumann Companies (https://neumanncompanies.com/)
Learn more about Folds of Honor and make a contribution today to support the pursuit of education for the families of America’s fallen and disabled heroes: https://foldsofhonor.org/
Visit the Club at Lac La Belle: https://clubatlaclabelle.com/
The 2023 Wisconsin Folds of Honor Invitational would not have been possible without these sponsors:
Neumann Companies
The Prestwick Companies
The Club at Lac La Belle
Dave Jones, Inc.
The Mark & Sue Neumann Family Foundation
Bevco Engineering Company, Inc.
First Business Bank
M3 Insurance
IEWC
Wisconsin Title, Closing & Credit Services
Sartori
Hottmann Construction
The Lutheran High School Association
Continental Properties
Petersen Onsite
Bakertilly
Tim O’Brien Homes
Video produced by The Prestwick Companies (https://prestwick-companies.com/)
Directed & Edited by Joe Ludwig (https://joefilm.co/)
© 2024 The Prestwick Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Good morning and welcome to the second annual Folds of Honor Wisconsin Invitational. It’s about the families, it’s about the veterans who have sacrificed the ultimate for us to have the freedom that we have to be here today. The Folds of Honor mission:
We are laser focused on what we do, and that is to provide educational scholarships to the families of fallen and disabled service members, first responder families as well. Help us spread the word. We want to find and impact as many families here in Wisconsin as possible.
And today we are here to honor those who have sacrificed so much. My college sweetheart, his name was Troy Gilbert. He was a major in the Air Force. He and I had been married for 13 years. He was a good old Texas boy. Loved God and country and flying.
And he had been in Iraq for three months. I opened the screen door and I just see this sea of blue uniforms. And then I realize that’s the uniform that hangs in my closet. “Ginger, on behalf of the United States of America, we need to inform you
That your husband, Major Troy Lee Gilbert, and his F-16 have gone down.” No, no, no. This wasn’t our story. Wasn’t how it was supposed to end. We were going to be happily married ever after. And there were a lot of dark days. I’m not going to lie, because you feel like
No one understands and no one cares. You can get bogged down with “did my sacrifice matter?” And y’all remind me that it did. Today’s folded flag recipient: Dirk Debbink. After more than 35 years combined active and reserve service, he understands the benefit of long term perspective towards serving others.
Thank you for your service to our country. Our funeral honor details participate in over 100 ceremonies every day all around the country. While each one of them is a an emotional, solemn event, the most difficult ones–without question– are those were the presentations made to a surviving spouse with one or more children
Standing by. [Exhales] None of us can make it better, but the assistance provided by Folds of Honor and other nonprofit organizations do answer many of the questions heavy on the survivors’ minds at that time. Easing the strain just a bit for what the future holds Through Folds of Honor
My kids are now thriving. By the grace of God, they’ve gotten to have this amazing education that Troy would have so wanted them to have had, but we could have never afforded. There’s a whole lot of other military families out there who are like “This wasn’t how it was supposed to end.”
I love that until we take our last breath we got a chance to leave a better legacy. You just want to do something with the time that you have and hope it counts and makes a difference.
