Gold Star father Steven McGhee, whose son, Army Cpl. Ryan McGhee, was killed in action in 2009, told Newsmax on Tuesday he wants people to know that Memorial Day is less about ushering in the summer season and more about honoring the fallen.
"I would like everyone to remember that it's not all about picnics and starting the summer off with a bang and going to pool parties," McGhee said on Newsmax's "Wake Up America." "It's basically service members who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country. I'm honored that my son is buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Section 16. But it's also all the service people, men and women, who gave the ultimate sacrifice, who helped make this country free and stand where we are today, being the country that we are.
"I think that that's what they really need to remember, is that these people, these service members, gave the ultimate sacrifice to keep us free and the way the world is right now."
McGhee described Ryan as "an amazing son," who was "absolutely loved and admired by everybody" and who is "greatly missed" 16 years after his passing.
"He was an athlete in high school," McGhee said. "He played soccer, he played football. He loved football. During his senior year, we actually went to some colleges for him to play football and one day he came home and said, 'Hey dad, I'm not going to go to college. I want to become an Army Ranger like Pat Tillman.' He won the Pat Tillman Award in high school for football, and he was a great athlete."
Despite his concerns about Ryan entering the military during wartime, McGhee said he was "very proud" that his son made the decision to join.
"Honestly, I was scared because there was a war going on at the time, but my son is smart and he loved it and I was very proud of him," McGhee said. "He made his own decisions and I had to respect his decisions on going into the military."
When asked how he grieves his son's death, McGhee said he does so by "remembering the good times that we had when he was a child growing up and getting hurt and daddy there to fix him and playing football with him."
The Gold Star father said that when he sees President Donald Trump meeting with families like his, visiting Arlington National Cemetery, and going to military bases around the world, it tells him that "the president thinks about our men and women in uniform and that … he really cares about our military."
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Nicole Weatherholtz ✉
Nicole Weatherholtz, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.