The commander of a critical Air Force training and operations center will join the Burlington County Commissioners and other area elected officials, veterans and residents on May 30 to honor and remember those who gave their lives in service to our country.
Maj. Gen. Mark D. Camerer, Commander of the U.S. Air Force Expeditionary Center, Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, will deliver the keynote address at the Burlington County Memorial Day Ceremony on May 30 at Veterans Memorial Park, 851 Old York Road, Burlington Township (adjacent to the Burlington Township Municipal Complex.)
The ceremony is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. and residents are invited to attend.
In addition to Camerer’s address, the ceremony will feature wreath presentations and remarks from Commissioner Director Dan O’Connell.
“Memorial Day is a day we honor the service and sacrifices of all who have stepped forward to defend our nation and its people, and we are honored to have a distinguished leader like Major General Camerer to help memorialize these heroes,” O’Connell said.
“Memorial Day is a sacred holiday where we all reflect on the meaning of service and the sacrifices made by the men and women who wear the uniforms of our armed services and their families,” added Commissioner Allison Eckel, the Board’s liaison for Military and Veterans Services. “We must never forget our fallen heroes or their families, and this ceremony allows our county to keep that promise and pay respect to them and the ideas and people they gave their lives to defend.”
As the commander of the Air Force Expeditionary Center, Maj. Gen. Camerer leads more than 14,000 Airmen assigned to the Expeditionary Center, which is the Air Force’s Center of excellence for Rapid Global Mobility and expeditionary Agile Combat Support training and education. The Expeditionary Center also provides direct oversight for the Global Air Mobility Support System and installation support, contingency response and building partnership capacity mission sets with the global military enterprise.
Maj. Gen. Camerer earned his commission through the Air Force ROTC at the University of Wyoming and has held various positions at the squadron, group, wing, major command and combatant command levels through his career. He is a command pilot with more than 3,750 total flight hours and more than 745 combat and combat support flight hours in the C-17 and KC-135 during numerous operations, including Iraqi Freedom, Enduring Freedom, Noble Eagle and others across the world.
He also helped pilot the first of the new KC-46A Pegasus tankers to arrive at the Joint Base last year, marking a new era of aerial refueling operations at the installation.
The Burlington County Memorial Day ceremony is held on May 30 every year in recognition of the holiday’s origin in 1868 when General John A. Logan, a leader of Northern Civil War veterans, first called for a National Day of Remembrance for those who died in defense of the country.
“The heroes we honor on Memorial Day laid down their very lives in the defense of our nation and our people,” O’Connell said. “We cannot repay them or their loved ones for all they have given and lost. But just as those we memorialize felt duty-bound to give all, we too have a solemn duty to remember these men and women and honor them.”
