Born on April 7, 1903, in Binghamton, New York, Amasa Edward Hoyt Jr. enlisted in the United States Army on May 13, 1918, at the age of fifteen. He was discharged on August 31, 1918, when the Army discovered that he lied on his enlistment form. This dishonorable discharge would have made it impossible for Hoyt to be buried at Florida National Cemetery. However, an Act of Congress on March 3, 1936, upheld that soldiers who sought to serve before the legal age be “considered to have been honorably discharged,” recognizing their desire to serve their nation during wartime. Hoyt later served in World War II as a second lieutenant, and his unit occupied Berlin during the post-war period. While in Berlin, he met Martha Lehmann, who worked in a United States military office there. She returned to the United States with him as his fiancé in 1946, and they married in 1947. The two divorced in 1953. Hoyt was eventually appointed as a postmaster for Florida by President John F. Kennedy. He passed away on November 22, 1989, and is buried in Florida National Cemetery in Bushnell.

In 2017, the University of Central Florida was one of three universities selected to launch the National Cemetery Administration’s Veterans Legacy Program Project. The program engaged a team of scholars to make the life stories of veterans buried in the Florida National Cemetery available to the public. The project engages UCF students in research and writing and fosters collaboration between students, faculty and local Central Florida schools to produce interactive curriculum for k-12 students. The corresponding website exhibit uses RICHES Mosaic Interface to create a digital archive of related data. The public can use the project-developed augmented-reality app at more than 100 gravesites at the Florida National Cemetery, where they can access the UCF student-authored biographies of veterans.]]>
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