Iraq War Vets Honored At Civic Center Park On 13th Anniversary Of Invasion
DENVER (CBS4) - Sunday marks the 13th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq where thousands of U.S. service members were killed. Several veterans groups gathered to honor those from Colorado who served.
Kevin Sonka's son David was killed fighting overseas in 2013. He was from Colorado and loved the outdoors -- and his military work dog Flex.
"He and his dog were killed together," Sonka said.
Today Sonka runs the Rocky Mountain Dawgs Project in his son's honor. It's just one of multiple organizations that honored those killed in the Iraq War at Civic Center Park Sunday.
"Each one of the chairs here represents a person who died serving," Brittany Bartges with VFW Post 1 said.
For the past few weeks the organization Boots 66 has visited the 39 Colorado hometowns of each fallen Iraq War veteran delivering food and care packages to homeless vets in their honor.
"It's great to come together, even though we are part of different causes, we serve our community for different reasons to come together and honor those who have passed," Bartges said.
And while each organization may serve a different facet of veterans alive or dead, for those like Sonka, what's important is that their sacrifice is not forgotten.
"The very least we can do is remember them and honor them -- the very least," he said.