Lee to memorialize three service members

Gov. Bill Lee is scheduled to honor three service members at a Memorial Day service on Friday morning.

Here’s the release from the Department of Veterans Services:

NASHVILLE – Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, Tennessee Department of Veterans Services Commissioner Tommy Baker and Tennessee Military Department Adjutant General, Major General Jeff Holmes will honor three service members who gave the ultimate sacrifice at the state’s annual Memorial Day service on Friday, May 28, at 10:30 a.m. CDT at the War Memorial Auditorium in Nashville.

United States Army Sergeant First Class Jeremy Wayne Griffin of Greenbrier was killed in action on September 16, 2019 while conducting combat operations in Wardak Province, Afghanistan in support of Operation Freedom’s Sentinel. He was 41 years old. Griffin was a Special Forces communications Sergeant with 3rd Battalion, 1st Special Forces Group who joined the Army in 2004. He was on his fourth combat tour after completing three other combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.

United States Army Private First Class Oliver Jeffers of Huntsville was killed in action November 10, 1944 during combat in the Hürtgen Forest of Germany. Following the end of the war, officials were unable to recover or identify Jeffers’ remains, and he was declared non-recoverable in 1951. While studying unresolved American losses in the Hürtgen area, historians discovered a set of unidentified remains in the Ardennes American Cemetery that possibly belonged to Jeffers. In April 2018 his remains were disinterred and were positively identified April 23, 2020. Jeffers was laid to rest in Huntsville, TN October 7, 2020.

United States Navy Fireman Third Class Warren H. Crim of McMinnville was killed December 7, 1941 aboard the USS Oklahoma, while moored at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Crim’s unidentified remains were subsequently interred in either the Halawa or Nu’uanu cemeteries in Hawaii between 1941 and 1944 and remained there until June 2015, when the Deputy Secretary of Defense directed the disinterment of unidentified remains associated with the USS Oklahoma. Crim was identified December 8, 2017 and was laid to rest in Smartt, TN October 24, 2020.