Veterans Memorial Reef holds inaugural ceremony to memorialize local veterans

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — The remains of some deceased veterans from the Cape Fear will soon be resting beneath the ocean off our coast to serve as a reef for marine habitat.

Veterans Memorial Reef is a non profit that held its inaugural “Our Fallen Heroes” ceremony over the weekend on the grounds of the Battleship North Carolina attraction.

Each of the seven veterans were represented by their families and an aquatic urn.

The urns will be placed in the ocean to joining existing ocean reefs with the goal of helping to provide fish and other marine life habitat.

“A lot of our state veteran cemeteries, and our federal veteran cemeteries are quickly filling up,” said Joe Irrera who is the President the nonprofit. “This is a way to still continually honor our veterans, honor the families, do that legacy, and ease that burden a little bit on the land side of it.”

Thomas Marcinowski is the CEO of Veterans Memorial Reef. He says it was fitting to hold the “Inaugural Launch of Our Fallen Heroes” ceremony during the Memorial Day weekend.

“A lot of people forget this is what the weekend symbolizes, those heroes who served our country, raised their hands and were willing to give their life,” Marcinowski said. “These heroes have given the ultimate sacrifice and we just want to keep it going and commemorate them.”

The group plans to hold an “Our Fallen Heroes” ceremony each year.

“We were recently designated as the first World War II Heritage City and this was just a way to further honor the veterans,” Irrera said. “We’re so pleased to be able to do it on this day, and with the help of the Battleship allowing us to hold the ceremony here, it’s been nothing but a tremendous honor for us.”

The non-profit plans to hold a private ceremony to place the aquatic urns in a 160-acre area off the coast of Carolina Beach and Wrightsville Beach on Tuesday.