Buckhead’s American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars posts held their first joint Memorial Day service on May 28 at the Atlanta History Center’s Veterans Park.

Participating in the joint Memorial Day ceremony May 28 at the Atlanta History Center were, from left, Ken DeSimone, American Legion Post 140’s commander and Sandy Springs’ police chief; Jon Reeder; Frank Cox; Bill Makepeace, VFW Post 12164’s commander; Dave Tippel; Rich Whitner; and Emory Mulling. (Special)

The service had leaders and members of the Waldo M. Slaton American Legion Post 140, located in Chastain Park, and the Lt. Tyler Hall Brown VFW Post 12164, based in the former clubhouse of Bobby Jones Golf Course.

Brown, the VFW post’s namesake, was a Brookhaven native who was president of his classes at the Woodward Academy and Georgia Tech. He was killed by a sniper while serving in Iraq in 2004.

Slaton was serving in the Army during World War I in 1918 when he died in an influenza epidemic.

John Ruch is an Atlanta-based journalist. Previously, he was Managing Editor of Reporter Newspapers.