For Those Who Served

Sgt. David C. Keene entered into service with the U.S. Army on June 6, 1918. He trained as a member of the 156th Depot Brigade at Camp Jackson in South Carolina, becoming a Band Sergeant. After his service, Sgt. Keene, who is known to those closest to him as “The Family Hero,” lost a leg while working as one of the first motorcycle cops in Hillsborough County. 

How do we know all these details about Sgt. Keene? Because of Drew Garcia ’26.

Garcia has initiated a major project dedicated to the preservation of the lives of the veterans interred at the American Legion Cemetery located at American Legion Post 5.

His work is bringing the deceased from the South Tampa cemetery back to life through diligent research and storytelling. His documentation, which then becomes a part of each veteran’s file, is resuscitating their amazing stories. One at a time.

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For years as a child growing up, Garcia would travel in the back seat of the family car past the cemetery on Kennedy Blvd., just east of Dale Mabry Hwy., and wonder about those buried there.

Who were they? And what was their story?

One day he mentioned his curiosity to his parents, and lo and behold, his stepmother knew the woman who operated the cemetery with the striking, arched front entry gate. 

The serendipitous introduction of Garcia to Alyse Duffy, the president of the American Legion Cemetery Corp., was the match that started the fire. Garcia was interested in the stories beyond the inscriptions on the gravestones. However, Duffy shared with him how little actually was known about the 732 veterans buried in the 102-year-old cemetery. Beyond the basics – name, date of birth and death, and maybe their rank or branch of service – just a handful had any more information on file.

All 732 were military veterans and American Legion members (founded in 1919, the American Legion is a leading advocate – 1.6 million members – for veterans and their families). That was known, and that’s why they were buried there. But almost no meaningful records existed. No files, no photos, no biographies.

For Garcia, this struck a chord. In 2012, when he was in preschool, his grandfather had died. Later, Garcia was told about his grandfather’s military service and his career as a commercial airline pilot. The more he learned, the more Garcia lamented he would never get to know this amazing man who had led such an accomplished life.

Duffy gave Garcia the greenlight to research those in the cemetery, and now Garcia is creating an opportunity for others: to know about, to connect with, and to appreciate those who came before us, a biographical sketch of veterans who served our nation and are buried here in Tampa.

 “(Duffy) reached out and said she’d love to know the stories of these people,” Garcia said. “I love history, I love American history, I love telling stories. So I was like, ‘This sounds great.’

“There were no specific instructions. Just go do it.”

So, he’s doing it.

“We wanted the story, to get to know the person, not just bullet points,” said Garcia, who earned an Executive Scholarship at Boys State this summer. “The first guy I did was Frank Morris. His tombstone had a cross on it, but they were placing a Star of David to adorn his grave instead of a wreath. Some were leaving stones on his grave, possibly in the Jewish tradition of leaving small stones on graves.

“Religion is not listed on government documents. So I had to do a full life analysis to figure out his religion. Find out everything about him and piece it together. I looked up all of the places of worship in his hometown of Shelbyville, Ind. His dad was dairy farmer. I found everything, but found no evidence he was Jewish. I learned everything I could about him. After that, I did a write-up, so now we have his true full story.”

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On March 3, 1921, Technical Sergeant Gordon Edward Durland was born in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. He entered into the service with the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1941, joining the 557th Bombardment Squadron of the 387th Bomber Group, a unit also known as “Keller’s Killers.” Tech. Sgt. Durland trained on and flew B-26 bombers at MacDill Air Force Base and participated in many different European campaigns during World War II, including Normandy and the Battle of the Bulge. He was discharged after serving in the Korean War in the early 1950s, and he passed away in Tampa on October 10, 1981.

Durland died 44 years ago, but via Garcia’s painstaking fact-checking and vivid detail, Durland has, in a sense, been brought back to life.

“They say you die twice,” Garcia said. “There’s your actual death, and then there is the last time your name is mentioned. I’m trying to prolong that second death.”

Garcia has a partner in his work, Paige Wilson, a senior at the Academy of the Holy Names. Together they recently formalized the endeavor by forming American Bios (@americanbios on Instagram), whose mission is the preservation of the memories of the veterans interred at the American Legion Cemetery at American Legion Post 5.

“The main goal right now is to establish American Bios as an organization,” said Garcia, who, as a descendent of a veteran, recently became a member of the Sons of the American Legion. “I want to get people involved working with us. We want it to end up being like a library so all of these stories can be accessed. And we want to get QR codes by tombstones so you can read it or have it read to you.”

Garcia is the lead researcher/historian, while Wilson, his girlfriend, is handling the social media, branding/design, and publicity side of things. Some Jesuit classmates have expressed interest in joining the mission.

How did Garcia get Wilson on board? Well, she also has family who served and an interest in veterans/military history. When he began devoting himself to this mission, Garcia says she realized, “the best way to spend time with me was to join me on this quest.”

People are taking notice. On Memorial Day, Garcia spoke at the American Legion about his project to about 300 veterans and their families. Also at the event were Maj. Gen. Michael E. Martin, the Deputy Commander, Air Force Special Operations Command, and U.S. Representative Kathy Castor, who was very impressed that a high school senior buried in college applications and school responsibilities was devoting so much to this project.

“I met with her in July at her office in West Tampa,” Garcia said. “She was very interested, and very supportive – she loved it. We’re staying in touch, and maybe I will visit her in Washington, D.C.”

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The Story Behind the Stone: To date, Garcia has taken deep-dive research into 20 of the deceased interred at Post 5, and he’s completed eight – eight people whose second death has been prolonged. His youthful curiosity has developed into a passion.

How does Garcia learn so much about individuals who died decades ago, long before the Internet? With some Ph.D-level research.

It starts with the headstone engraving, and maybe a couple more nuggets of information that Duffy has on file. 

Garcia makes a spreadsheet with everything he knows, and often his first move is to visit Ancestry.com. He’ll take what he learns there and make Internet searches and visit other genealogy sites. He accesses old newspaper clippings and sends email queries to verified family members. Perhaps most importantly, he explores critical source documentation such as census forms, marriage licenses, military installment records, and voter registrations.

Some rabbit holes have been especially challenging. George Collas was born in Greece in the 1880s, where “they don’t have great birth records,” and came to the U.S. in 1907, at, supposedly, age 18. Garcia found evidence he falsified his age.

“He wanted to be old enough to get into the U.S. and get a job,” Garcia said. “He actually entered the military before he was a citizen. You can figure that out just by knowing the facts, the date of military entry and date of citizenship.”

Garcia takes the pieces and forms the puzzle, deliberately shaping an accounting of a military life. And like an old-school journalist or historian, he has learned to be careful with facts – AI often spouts mistakes – and cautious about sourcing. Accuracy is utmost. He notates items and indicates any verification, sharing the degree of confidence he has in the validity of any given piece of information.

For example, remember Sgt. David C. Keene? Well there’s another David C. Keene who served in the military at about the same time and who turns up on Internet searches of Gold Star Veterans from Florida. That David C. Keene was a Technical Sergeant from Orlando who was aboard a B-17 when it crashed into the North Sea off the coast of England in 1943.

The existence of concurrent David C. Keenes could have resulted in conflating their lives, and it demonstrates the challenges Garcia faces with each new veteran whose past he unveils.

This is his passion, his calling. He’s determined to succeed and make a positive impact on the military veterans in that cemetery, and their descendants. So that many more will know about people such as Pauline Rosella Slattery, who was part of the groundbreaking Women’s Army Corps of World War II, worked as a codebreaker, and ascended to the rank of Master Sergeant.

“My goal, the end goal of the whole project, is to document all 732,” Garcia said. “But I’m a realist. One a week until I graduate, I want to do that.”

(Click to view a feature story about Garcia and the American Legion cemetery produced by American Legion website, www.legion.org. For photos, go to the Facebook page Jesuit High School of Tampa.)