National Sheriff of the Year 2021 and current S.C. State Guard commander honored in museum’s brick garden
By Chris Carter
Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott, who also commands the all-volunteer S.C. State Guard (SCSG), has received yet another honor when a brick bearing his name and military rank was installed earlier this year in the S.C. Military Museum’s relatively new brick garden (aka S.C. military courtyard). The garden was established in 2014. Lott’s brick was installed on February 26, 2025.
“This is an important personal honor to me from several friends,” said Lott, who was re-sworn as Sheriff of Richland County for his eighth consecutive term in January. “It means a lot to me personally because it will be seen by future generations of my family when they visit this beautiful museum, which exists as one of the Palmetto State’s finest repositories of military artifacts and pieces stretching back to the Colonial Wars.”
Lott’s brick [pictured] is a gift from from Col. Steve Vitali, USMC (Ret.); Mr. Keith Vitali; Maj. Gen. Tom Mullikin, SCSG (Ret.) and a former U.S. Army JAG officer; Mr. Bruce Brutschy; Richland County Sheriff’s Department Deputy Chief Maria Yturria; Mrs. Alba “Tita” Smith Rowell; and Col. W. Thomas Smith Jr., SCMD (Ret.) and a former USMC Infantry leader.
The garden (courtyard) itself features military themed murals on two walls by artist Michael Geddings, a brick walkway leading toward a fountain, and above the fountain a large gray-stone plaque emblazoned with the state flag and U.S. flag and the words of the U.S. armed forces oath of service.
Lott, the National Sheriff of the Year for 2021 and twice awarded S.C. Sheriff of the Year, is a Fort Jackson (U.S. Army ) Hall of Fame inductee, the current president of the Palmetto Chapter of the Association of the United States Army, and the current two-star commanding general of the S.C. State Guard.
The brick garden honors numerous military veterans – primarily officers and staff NCOs – from the S.C. Army and Air National Guard, SCSG, the S.C. Military Department’s Joint Services Detachment, regular and Reserve U.S. Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force veterans, including several Medal of Honor recipients all of whom hail from or are otherwise directly connected to South Carolina.
Among the bricks on order and slated for engraving and installation are several state militia and Continental Army officers from the American Revolution including MG Francis Marion, “the Swamp Fox;” MG Thomas Sumter, “the Gamecock;” MG William Moultrie, commander of Fort Sullivan (later renamed Fort Moultrie); Captain Thomas Woodward, “the Regulator” and a S.C. Ranger commander; and MG Baron Johann De Kalb, who was mortally wounded while leading his men in an heroic last-stand effort during the ill-fated Battle of Camden.
– For more information about the S.C. Military Museum, visit https://www.scmilitarymuseum.com/.
– Chris Carter is a former semi-pro football player and U.S. Air Force veteran whose articles have appeared in Ops Lens, Human Events, Canada Free Press, Deutsche Welle, NavySEALs.com and other publications.
