Kenneth Newton was wounded just one month before his tour was to end in Vietnam. He could have come home to recuperate — but he chose to stay.

He never made it home.

“That’s how dedicated he was to his country,” his sister Dorothy Newton remembered Monday morning as the community held a Memorial Day service at the Veterans Memorial at the Escambia County Courthouse.

“We miss Kenny Newton every day.”

Newton was among the family members and friends of those who died in service to their country who stood beside their loved ones’ names on the memorial at the conclusion of the service, which included patriotic songs and prayers and a reading of the names of all of those from Escambia County who have died in wars from World War I to the War on Terror.

“We think of the things that could have been that will never be,” said Mike Hanks, veterans services officer for the county. “We all remember.”