BATON ROUGE - A large crowd visited the USS Kidd for its annual Memorial Day Remembrance Event.

Many veterans showed up in uniform and many guests also wore patriotic attire to show their support at the Louisiana Memorial Plaza.

As it has been in the past, the service focused on Gold Star families, families that have lost a family member serving in a branch of the armed forces. This year's speaker, Walter Mixon, lost his son Corporal Justin Ray Mixon in Iraq 10 years ago.

Mixon's name is just one of several thousand placed on the Louisiana Memorial Wall. During Monday's event, attendees placed a poppy beside those names.