Steve Raymond's Long March Into History...
Steve Raymond, an American hero, will be buried in a ceremony that includes a Purple Heart honor guard at 11 a.m. on Sept. 24 at the Florida National Cemetery in Bushnell.
Raymond died peacefully Sunday at the age of 92, one of just a handful of survivors of one of history's more tragic events, the Bataan Death March.
His story, like so many others, is not so much about war as it is the human spirit. It is a story about absolute good and unbelievable evil and the many shades in between.
Raymond was one of us, maybe even more so. He grew up on Anna Maria Island across from Bradenton back before it had been discovered by developers as a potential island paradise. His parents lived on a small barge, and Raymond pretty much had the island with its less than two dozen souls to himself. He would later say that it was growing up in that isolated area that helped him make it through his ordeal.
Read the full story By STEVE OTTO of The Tampa Tribune... Raymond's Long March into History.
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