Bensley Park will honor all veterans and active military personnel Nov. 12 with a “Navy Day” theme ceremony. The two-hour ceremony will begin at 11 a.m., and its special guest speaker will be Navy Lt. Morgan Looney, a Richmond native.
Looney graduated from Douglas Freeman High School in 2003 and from the United States Naval Academy in 2007. She service selected 
Naval Aviation upon graduation and earned her Wings of Gold in 2010 as an F/A-18F Super Hornet Weapons System Officer. After three years of flight school, she was eager to join her Fleet Squadron VFA-211, the Fighting Checkmates, stationed out of NAS Oceana in Virginia Beach. Assigned to Carrier Air Wing One aboard the USS Enterprise, Morgan and the Fighting Checkmates completed two deployments in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation New Dawn in 2011 and 2012. Morgan has flown nearly 200 combat flight hours over Iraq and Afghanistan, but just recently hung up her flight suit after nine years of service to take on her next as challenging role as mother of three children under the age of three. Morgan’s husband is currently Active Duty Navy stationed in Virginia Beach, where she and her family reside.
Along with Looney speaking about her experiences as a flight officer in combat, there will be additional guest speakers, and musical performances by the United States Fleet Forces Band and the Thomas 
Dale High School Chorus, and raising of the service flags by the Thomas Dale High School JROTC. William “Billy” T. Stubbs, president of the Bensley Veterans Association, will give welcome guests. Additonal platform speakers include: Lewis W. Brandt, chaplain of the Richmond Navy League; John V. Cogbill III, Esq.; and Christopher M. Winslow, a Navy veteran on the Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors.
A free lunch will be provided in the community center following the ceremony.
The ceremony is sponsored by Chesterfield Parks & Recreation and Bensley Veteran Association. For more details, call David Potter at (804) 275-5321.
Bensley Park is located at 2900 Drewry’s Bluff Rd., North Chesterfield.
