From the first, U.S. Army SPC David Houck was a man of focus. In preschool, he would make paper swords for his classmates, his mother recalls. Hundreds of them, every day.
It earned him the title of “armorer” and seemed to set his destiny.
As an adult, he regained that title when he became a supply specialist in the U.S. Army for Alpha Company, 297th Military Intelligence Battalion. That was the job he held with pride until his death in a car crash on Jan. 2 in Georgia.
On Monday, his mother took the stage as the keynote speaker during the 75th annual Memorial Day service at Woodlawn Memorial Park in Gotha, for the unveiling of a monument honoring the Gold Star families of fallen military service members.
“I’m telling but one story among a quilt made of many, and I have heard them,” Laurie Houck, of Winter Park, said to the audience of hundreds. “May our son’s story speak to you in some way. May it remind you of the community that supports you, your fellow Gold Star families as well as those still in military service.”
Erected beside thousands of graves with small American flags flapping over them in the breeze, the monument soon will offer local families the opportunity to inscribe the names of their fallen among the seals of the U.S. Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, Coast Guard and Space Force.
To start, just David Houck’s name is marked, honoring his family and his service.
Keynote Speaker and Gold Star mother Laurie House speaks about her son David Houck during the 75th Annual Memorial Day Remembrance Ceremony at Woodlawn Memorial Park in Orlando, Fla., Monday, May 26, 2025. (Willie J. Allen Jr./Orlando Sentinel)
Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings speaks to the crowd during the unveiling of a tribute to Gold Star Families at the 75th Annual Memorial Day Remembrance Ceremony at Woodlawn Memorial Park in Orlando, Fla., Monday, May 26, 2025. (Willie J. Allen Jr./Orlando Sentinel)
“Gold Star families represent the quiet strength of America,” Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings said as he unveiled the monument. “Your courage and resilience reflect the best of who we are as a nation. You remind us that behind every fallen hero is a family forever changed, a story we must never forget.”
In life, David Houck had a yearning to belong. He also had an active mind and body — he was always on the move, Laurie Houck said — a love for building things, and a fascination with superheroes. On the table set in his memory ahead of the ceremony, there was a “Thor: Love and Thunder” Lego set.
As he grew older, he knew he didn’t want to go to college but, in his mother’s words, “He just wanted to be somebody.” Then came the chance to join the Army.
“Once he put the uniform on, he was in and he carried it proudly,” Laurie Houck said. “He had decided to make the military his career relatively quickly, and I think he just wanted to do something important. That’s why he loves superheroes.”
Memorial of photos, moments and all things loved by David Houck on display during the 75th Annual Memorial Day Remembrance Ceremony at Woodlawn Memorial Park in Orlando, Fla., Monday, May 26, 2025. Gold Star Mother Laurie Houck was the keynote speaker during the ceremony. (Willie J. Allen Jr./Orlando Sentinel)
Laurie Houck didn’t expect to speak at Monday’s ceremony so soon after her son’s passing. The call came as her family looked into resources through the Army following David’s passing. In her speech, she joked that she made the mistake of offering to help at any time.
She also didn’t expect her son’s name to be the first included on the local monument. While she lives in Winter Park, he is buried in Washington.
But now, she said, she can honor him closer to home.
“He is 3,000 miles away, and I want to come here and remember him here and think about him,” she said. “Now I have a place where I can do that.”
