Wreaths can be purchased and sponsored by members of the community, and there hasn’t been a year when there were enough wreaths to honor each of the veterans buried at the cemetery, which is the chapter’s goal. Photo: Kerri Taix.

On Dec. 13, at 10 a.m., as part of the national Wreaths Across America program, the community will recognize veterans at a ceremony paying tribute to over 500 service members buried at the Heber City Cemetery. And for retired U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Denise Harris, the opportunity showcases a lifetime of military dedication, including her entire family.

Denise and her husband both know the meaning of service. The couple met at Penn State University’s Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) quite by accident, but fate had its own plans. Following graduation, they received their Air Force commissions in the early 1990s and married along the way. “We both fell in love with the military; we called it our ‘rotsie romance,” she laughed. Both achieved the rank of lieutenant colonel before retiring after 30 years of service, and both moved to the Heber Valley in 2015. “After living at different bases from California to Colorado and Wyoming, we both knew we were no longer East Coast people,” she said. “So, when we were visiting Utah, we drove from Park City to Heber and said, ‘What is this beautiful place?’”

The couple has a son and a daughter who are following in their parents’ footsteps. Their son, currently a first lieutenant in the Air Force, will make captain in 2026 and is stationed in Germany. Their daughter received a full Air Force ROTC scholarship and is attending Penn State, where she will receive her commission in May of 2027. “It’s become a generational thing now,” said Denise, whose brother and sister-in-law also retired from the Air Force as lieutenant colonels.

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Following her military retirement, Denise remained involved in serving, serving as the Senior Aerospace Science Instructor (SASI) for the Air Force Junior ROTC program at Wasatch High School and as a substitute teacher for the district. For five years, she has led young cadets in the Junior ROTC program. In 2022, she was contacted by the local chapter president of Wreaths Across America to invite Wasatch County cadets to the annual ceremony honoring buried veterans at the Heber City cemetery. And, in 2023, she took on the role when the chapter president retired.

Denise says the ceremony has been an annual Heber event since at least 2018, and the cemetery has over 500 veterans buried on its grounds, nearly 100 of which have been identified since she took over as chapter president. In her quest to identify as many veterans as possible, she engaged her love of research and history, poring through national databases and cross-referencing them with the cemetery’s records. “Some of the graves are as old as the Indian wars going back to 1865 and go back to the days of Heber’s early settlers,” she said. “I’ve learned a lot about the history of this valley by walking that cemetery and looking up these names, so it’s made me feel more connected to my community.”

Denise says getting her ROTC cadets involved in the process and the ceremony has been a teaching experience for her and her students. “I tell them when they are walking around placing wreaths to pause and look and see. You don’t know what they have gone through.” She shared a story that she said made a particular impact. “What really hit me was finding four headstones that belonged to brothers from the same family, one who was killed in combat in WWII and all serving the same war,” she said. “In total there were six or seven brothers from the Mair family who served and are all veterans. It really makes you realize what a sacrifice that family made.”

Wreaths Across America is a national event with over two million volunteers and supporters who gather at more than 5,200 participating locations in all 50 states, at sea and abroad. Launched in Maine in 1992 at Arlington Cemetery, its mission is to Remember the fallen; Honor those that serve; Teach the next generation the value of freedom. Each grave will be adorned with a wreath, along with dedicated and decorated wreaths presented for each arm of the United States military: Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, Coast Guard, Merchant Marine, as well as Prisoners of War (POW) and Missing in Action (MIA).

Denise said wreaths can be purchased and sponsored by members of the community and that there hasn’t been a year when there were enough wreaths to honor each of the veterans buried at the cemetery, which is the chapter’s goal. “It’s $17, and we need 500 of them. I hate to leave a grave empty.”

The public is invited to attend the ceremony, which will include tributes, stories, the playing of TAPS, the distribution of the wreaths, and the presentation of the dedicated wreaths– all expected to last about an hour. “The freedoms that we have are on the backbone of the people who served and potentially gave their lives, starting with the Revolutionary War,” she said. “Honoring them with a very simple wreath is just one of the many ways to remember their service and their sacrifice.”

For more information, visit www.wreathsacrossamerica.org