Doughnuts, coffee, juice prior to ceremony
The City of Platte City will host its annual Memorial Day Ceremony at the Platte City Cemetery on Monday, May 29 beginning at 10 a.m.
Featured speaker will be Col. Barrett W. Golden, who serves as the commander of the Mission Support Group, 139th Airlift Wing, Rosecrans Air National Guard Base in St. Joseph.
In addition to the 10 a.m. service, the Platte City Lions Club will be serving doughnuts, coffee and juice beginning at 9 a.m. across the street from the ceremony at the former Lions Club building.
The service will include:
Welcome by the Platte City Chamber of Commerce; call to colors by VFW Post 4055; posting of colors by Boy Scout Troop 1351; the Pledge of Allegiance; national anthem performed by Annabelle Sweet; invocation by the VFW Post 4055 chaplain; presentation of wreath by the Daughters of the American Revolution; Mayor Tony Paolillo reading a list of names of those interred in the cemetery from May 2022 to May 2023; words from the featured speaker; rifle salute and taps by VFW Post 4055; America the Beautiful performed by Lauren Talley; benediction by Michael Lazio, the Platte City Police Department chaplain; retirement of the colors and dismissal by Boy Scout Troop and VFW Post.
More than 450 American flags will be posted at the graves of veterans in the cemetery, city officials say.
Col. Golden began his service in 1999 with Air National Guard. He attended Air Force Basic Training at Lackland AFB and Command Post Controller technical school at Keesler AFB. He then returned to an assignment with the 146th Airlift Wing as a traditional guardsman. Col. Golden was selected in 2001 to attend undergraduate pilot training. He received his commission from the Air National Guard Academy of Military Science, Knoxville, Tenn. in 2001, followed by undergraduate pilot training at Columbus AFB, Columbus, Miss. and initial C-130 E training at Little Rock AFB, Ark.
He began a full time Air National Guard career in 2009. Over the years he rose to the rating of evaluator pilot in the C-130J aircraft.
He has deployed on numerous worldwide missions in times of peace and war. In 2010, Col. Golden deployed as the chief of tactics for C-130 operations at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan. As a command pilot, he has flown more than 4,000 hours.
In 2011, Col. Golden began a tour at the Advanced Airlift Tactics Training Center (AATTC), 139th Airlift Wing in St. Joseph. In 2019, Col. Golden took command of the 139th Airlift Wing’s operations support squadron and switched back to the Air National Guard. In late 2020, Col. Golden came back to the AATC as the vice commandant and eventually commandant until Jan. 31 of this year and finally took command of the 139th Mission Support Group on Feb. 1.