Operation Welcome Home, a program spearheaded by Maricopa City Councilwoman Julia Gusse to welcome veterans to the community, honored two veterans at Tuesday’s city Council meeting.
Pfc. Darion Walker, a former Marine, moved to Maricopa from Chicago in June 2012 and served on an anti-terrorist team at Camp LeJeune in North Carolina and Yokosuka, Japan.
“It feels amazing,” Walker said of the ceremony. “I mean, people say ‘thank you’ but nothing to this extent.”
Cpl. Douglas Petruska moved to Maricopa in 2011 from Jacksonville, Fla. and joined the Marines in 1992, where he served as a ground radio technician until he was honorably discharged in 1997.
He said he thought the ceremony was “very, very nice.”
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