A Memorial Day Program will be held at 11:00 am. Monday, May 30, 2022 at the Grady County Veterans Memorial located on the west side of Shannon Springs Park in Chickasha.
 Tyler Brooks, Chickasha City Manager will be the keynote speaker at the event. Brooks served in the U.S. Air Force for eight years. He attained the rank of Captain and was serving as a Flight Commander and Assistant Professor of Aerospace Studies in South Daytona, Florida before becoming Chickasha’s City Manager in October of 2021.
 If inclement weather occurs the program will be moved inside to the Chickasha Elks Lodge, 1818 West Country Club Road.
 The Chickasha Elks Lodge #2125 will be serving the traditional dinner of Ham, Cheese Potatoes, Green Beans and desert to all Veterans and their families following the program.
 Each Veteran listed on the Memorial Wall as well as each Grady County Veteran is an American Hero who, at one point in their life, wrote a blank check made payable to The United States of America for an amount of, Up To and Including their Life.
 Many of the veterans honored on the Memorial did make that ultimate sacrifice and laid down their life for the freedom we enjoy today. We own a great debt to them and their families for the bravery and courage of these men and women. They have given much so that we can live in a democratic country with personal freedoms.
 The number of American soldiers who died while fighting in major conflicts include: The American Revolution, 4,435; the Civil War, 498,332 (estimate);World War One, 53,402; World War Two, 291,557; Korean War, 26,674; Vietnam War, 58,220; Persian Gulf War, 383; Iraq War, 4,412; and the War in Afghanistan, 2,351. Untold thousands were also injured in these conflicts both physically and mentally.
 Brooks led 10 to 12 department directors and as many as 210 employees in Public Works and IT Infrastructure; Human Resources, Planning, Project Management; Records Management, and Cyber Security.
 During a deployment overseas, Brooks created the first back-up U.S. communications circuit in the Middle East (at no cost to the U.S. Government) saving the country $15 million. He was also nominated and competitively selected to mentor the next generation of Air Force leaders by instructing more than 400 cadets, which was one of the largest ROTC detachments in the country. In that role, he shared leadership experience and taught doctrine, policies and procedures, and the leadership principals of the U.S. Air Force.
 He grew up in North Platte, Nebraska and earned a Master’s Degree in Public AHE and earned a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. Brooks and his wife Gail have five children.