Talking about her daughter every day helps Oneida Oliver-Sanders cope with her grief. She tells those who want to know about Sgt. Kennedy Sanders that she was a three-sport athlete. She worked as a middle school community basketball coach and collected tennis shoes. She read Marvel comics. Listened to Beyoncé. Watched the “Abbott Elementary” mockumentary-style television series.
“I want to make sure that I always say her name daily,” said Oliver-Sanders, a Waycross resident. “What motivates me really is fear of forgetting something — the fear of forgetting some of the small things about her, some of her quirks, some of the things she liked.”
Credit: WSBTV Videos
Her 24-year-old daughter was among three Army reservists from Georgia who were killed in a Jan. 28 drone strike near the Jordanian-Syrian border. The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a coalition of militias backed by Iran, claimed responsibility for the attack, calling it revenge for America’s military presence in the region and the Palestinian death toll in Gaza.
On Friday, the National Infantry Museum near Fort Moore in Columbus will unveil a new memorial recognizing Oliver-Sanders and surviving relatives of other U.S. service members who have died. The memorial features a photo collage and background about the origin of the term “Gold Star Family.”
Credit: National Infantry Museum
Credit: National Infantry Museum
During World War I, according to the memorial, American families displayed flags featuring a blue star for every immediate relative serving in uniform. When one of those relatives died, the blue star was replaced with a gold one.
On Saturday, the museum separately will rededicate its Global War on Terrorism Memorial, which commemorates more than 7,000 U.S. service members who have died since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. It features a 13-foot steel beam from one of the World Trade Center towers as well as granite panels engraved with the names of the service members.
Sanders’ name was recently added to one of those panels along with the names of nine other service members. Among them are the two other Army reservists who were killed in the drone attack, Sgt. Breonna Moffett, 23, of Savannah, and Staff Sgt. William Rivers, 46, of Carrollton.
Credit: National Infantry Museum
Credit: National Infantry Museum
Jennie Taylor, a Gold Star widow and mother of seven from Utah, is scheduled to speak as part of a series of events at the museum this weekend. She created a charitable foundation in the name of her late husband, Utah Army National Guard Maj. Brent Taylor. A Bronze Star Medal recipient, he was killed during a deployment to Afghanistan in 2018.
The Major Brent Taylor Foundation is paying for 191 Gold Star family members from across the nation to visit the museum this weekend. Two of the families attending this weekend’s events, Taylor said, lost Marines in the same deadly attack in Iraq 20 years ago.
“For me, bringing Gold Star family members together is healing. It is humbling. And I hope it is empowering,” said Taylor, the foundation’s executive director and founder. “I hope some of the families who might be struggling more than others can find hope in how another family has carried on.”
Credit: Jason Getz
Credit: Jason Getz
Like Taylor, Oliver-Sanders created a charity amid her grief. The Sgt. Kennedy L. Sanders Foundation, Oliver-Sanders said, has awarded scholarships and helped local schoolchildren buy shoes. Meanwhile, she is planning a 5K run for January in Waycross to honor her daughter and raise money for the foundation.
At the same time, Oliver-Sanders is supporting other parents who have lost children as part of a group called “Angel Moms of Waycross.” Members gather for social events, pray for one another and attend therapy together.
“Staying busy is my coping mechanism,” Oliver-Sanders said. “If you are a parent, there is nothing that fuels you more than doing something for your child.”
Oliver-Sanders is gratified by the support her own family has received. Sympathy cards from every state have arrived at her door. For her daughter’s funeral procession, mourners festooned Waycross with purple ribbons, Sanders’ favorite color. And the city, she said, renamed a section of a street her daughter grew up on as Kennedy L. Sanders Way.
Soon after the drone attack in January, President Joe Biden called Oliver-Sanders and her husband to offer condolences. Later, the White House invited them to a July 4 event, where they were able to meet the president and first lady Jill Biden in person.
“We are in the middle of political campaigns and everything. But when this happened with my daughter, I can tell you that all of those political lines were blurred. Nobody cared about what party they were in, who they supported,” Oliver-Sanders said.
“Everyone came together and showed support for our families,” she added. “One thing I have learned throughout this ordeal is we are capable of working together. We are capable of supporting each other, no matter what our beliefs or our political stances are.”
She said she will be proud to attend the events at the museum this weekend, though she predicted they will be bittersweet. They are the kind of commemorative gatherings, she added, that her daughter would support.
“She would definitely be very much rallying around it and supporting it and supporting the families,” Oliver-Sanders said. “This would be something that she would definitely be a part of.”
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
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