Memorial History
The Florida Medal of Honor Memorial (MOHM) was started in January 1991 as the Medal of Honor Park by way of generous donations from several Veteran organizations and other people. The Highlands County Health Department building was named after a Florida MOH recipient Maj. Thomas B. McGuire Jr. Oak trees and bronze markers were placed for each recipient. The bronze markers were later replaced by 23 granite markers in 2005.
After the Veteran Services Office was constructed in 2010, at 7209 South George Blvd, Sebring, FL. 33875, the granite markers were moved to a newly constructed Tranquility Garden adjacent to the building. The site is maintained by Highlands County Facilities Management and has been the site for several veteran functions.
Starting in 2000 to 2008 Commander Harry Oakley, DAV, began spearheading the mission to enhance the MOH Park by building a structure and memorial to house the citations and stories of each of the recipients. November 14, 2011 the Medal of Honor Park Foundation was established. On January 28, 2014 MOHM Committee voted to change the Medal of Honor Park Foundation to the Florida Medal of Honor Memorial. The solicitation of funds, accounting, publicizing and overseeing construction of the MOHM will be supervised by the Florida MOHM organization.
At the July 7, 2014 Highlands County Commissioners meeting the County Commissioners voted 5-0 to set aside 1.32 acres of Highlands County land for the use of the Florida Medal of Honor Memorial. This raw land is adjacent to the Veterans Service building.
As the members of the board of directors continued to pursue funds, whether from individual donations or with small fundraisers, the challenges became ever more apparent. The decision was reached to pursue grant funding from the state of Florida through a legislative appropriation of $250,000. On two occasions, our local statehouse representative, Dr. Cary Pigman, pushed the legislation to within one week of final approval. On the first occasion, Hurricane Michael so damaged the panhandle that all discretionary funds were withdrawn. On the second, the COVID pandemic did the same. Clearly this was understandable. Finally, we were fortunate and Representative Kaylee Tuck was able to push the legislation through and achieve an appropriation of the $250,000. This was given final approval in 2022.
In the meantime, it was discovered that the property adjacent to the Veterans Services Office was populated by sixteen gopher tortoises. As a protected species, this complicated the matter significantly. At a cost of $10,000 each for removal, the $160,000 bill was more than we could afford. We set up a briefing to the Highlands County Board of County Commissioners to ask for some assistance to that end. A suggestion was offered as part of the presentation to the commissioners: why not use the piece of property at the corner of Commerce and Eucalyptus streets in downtown Sebring—commonly called the “Girl Scout House corner?” This required a subsequent presentation to the City of Sebring as it owned the property. The process proceeded and we were granted the deed to the property—with the technical requirement that we had to pay $10 to the city. At the transfer ceremony in the Spring of 2022, Mayor John Shoop handed our chairman $10 as a donation! Follow-on briefings to the Community Redevelopment Agency, another round with the County Commissioners, and submission of paperwork to the Southwest Florida Water Management District, as well as submission of a 184-page packet to the Florida Department of Education, and we received final approval in early November of 2022.
The Groundbreaking ceremony was held on 29 November, 2022 at 2:00 PM. Representative Kaylee Tuck delivered remarks about the project and process to secure the state funding. Also present were members of the Highlands County Commissioners and the City of Sering.
Construction is on-going and the Memorial and Visitors Center will open in September of 2024.
National Cemetery.