Smyrna Remembers One of Its Own: Dr. Clark Harrell Headlines Memorial Day Tribute Honoring Captain Jeff Kuss

Smyrna Remembers One of Its Own: Honoring Captain Jeff Kuss on Memorial Day

TennesseeLedger.com Staff

There are moments that remind you why community matters. Memorial Day in Smyrna was one of them.

More than 50 people gathered at Lee Victory Recreation Park on Monday for a Memorial Day observance at the Capt. Jeff Kuss USMC Memorial  — a quiet but powerful reminder that sacrifice has a name, a face, and a hometown.

Among the speakers was Dr. Clark Harrell, principal of Stewarts Creek High School and a retired U.S. Air Force chaplain who was personally called in to support the Blue Angels team on June 2, 2016, the day Kuss died during a practice flight in Smyrna ahead of the Great Tennessee Air Show. 

Harrell’s message cut to the heart of what Memorial Day is really about. Attendee Tim Lanier of South Nashville told WKRN news said the remarks left him thinking about what service demands in everyday life. “He’s saying love is an action word, you know, and love requires sacrifice,” Lanier said. “He was speaking about Jeff Kuss, but that applies to all military veterans, and to all of us.” 

That’s the kind of truth worth driving out on a Monday morning to hear.

Lanier said the ceremony also carried personal meaning — he came to honor his grandfather, a retired Air Force veteran who passed away around this time last year. He needed to be around people who understood.

Elbert ‘Cotton’ Walden, a Smyrna resident and Vietnam veteran, put it simply: “It’s always an honor for me to attend the Smyrna Memorial ceremony honoring fallen warriors. I feel that it’s a duty to pay respects to them.” 

That’s Smyrna — that’s who we are.

Captain Kuss was 32 years old when his F/A-18 Hornet went down during that training flight. The Durango, Colorado native had dreamed of flying since