Alyssa Ortiz Rivera spent the weekend looking for her father.
While attending the Festival of Trees, 11-year-old Ortiz Rivera was searching for her father's name on the Purple Heart trees decorated by the local chapter of the Military Order of the Purple Heart. The trees bear purple ornaments with the rank, name and branch of service written by hand of each of the service members from Jacksonville and the surrounding bases who died during Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. The Purple Heart trees will be on display at the Camp Lejeune main exchange until Jan. 3.
Alyssa’s father, Javier Ortiz Rivera, a staff sergeant with 1st Battalion, 8th Marines was killed in Afghanistan by an improvised explosive device on Nov. 16, 2010. A dozen people helped in her search of the branches to find the ornament dedicated to him and honoring his sacrifice.
“At first I thought someone else was going to find the ornament so I was rushing to find it,” she said. “Eventually I slowed down because I knew he wouldn't let anyone else find it because I'm his princess.”
When an ornament bumped her head, she said she felt compelled to turn around. There, in front of her sat her father's purple ornament, facing her while nestled between the branches, as if to say “hi,” she said.
“Losing my father has taught me to hold my head up high,” she said. “The worst thing that could happen to me has already happened to me and I survived it so I can make it through anything. ...I just hope he knows how much I miss him and wish I could see him.”
The three Purple Heart trees have been decorated with 569 ornaments: 14 representing corpsman, six representing National Guard, 15 representing female service members and 534 representing male Marines. In addition to the Purple Heart trees, the order has also started a memorial tree for corpsman specifically. The tree represents 50 corpsman who have given their lives nationwide from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“When a man or woman joins the military they write a blank check up to the value of their own life,” said retired Navy Chief corpsman Verl Matthews, 66, of Jacksonville. “These guys and gals have to be represented because freedom isn’t free. And this only represents our local area — not the entire country.”
A Purple Heart recipient and Vietnam veteran, Matthews said that not enough is done to remember those who have lost their lives or were wounded defending the American flag since the United States was founded. Since the Revolutionary War, 1.2 million veterans have died and another 1.5 million have been wounded, according to Matthews. The Purple Heart to Matthews represents a hero who was willing to shed blood for their country, he said.
Over the past seven years since the order began decorating the trees, many active duty service members and families of the fallen have come to see their son’s, daughter’s or comrade’s ornament, although because of the amount of bulbs, it is often difficult, but not impossible to find, said Matthews.
“These young men and women have given us the freedoms we have enjoyed since 1776,” Matthews said. “That’s something people should take to heart and, hopefully, when they see the ornaments on the trees it means something to them.”