KAILUA — Six-year-old Mya Williams smiled proudly after seeing the gold-colored medal with a star and laurel wreath design she received yesterday from U.S. Sens. Daniel Inouye and Daniel Akaka before the start of this community's 60th Independence Day parade.

The Gold Medal of Remembrance established by Congress eventually will be presented to the children of all American soldiers killed in Afghanistan and Iraq. A purple ribbon is attached to the medal to symbolize the wounded heart of a fallen hero's child.

Mya's Schofield-based father, Army Sgt. Eugene Williams, was killed March 29, 2003, by a suicide bomber north of Najaf, Iraq, about 2 1/2 months before her sister, Monica, was born. Monica, now 3, also received a Gold Medal of Remembrance.

"With much aloha, I looked into their eyes and thought about the sacrifice the whole family made in the passing of their dad in defending our country's independence and liberty," Akaka said. "And today is a day we're remembering that, and also celebrating what it has taken people like their dad to keep our country as secure as we are today."

In presenting the medals, Inouye said, "We should never forget those who have stood in our behalf."

Mya and Monica were selected by the White House Commission on Remembrance to receive their medals yesterday, the first presented in Hawai'i. The commission made its initial presentation of several hundred medals at the "Time of Remembrance" celebration May 21 in Washington, D.C.

Unlike her sister, Mya remembers what her father looked like and has memories of time spent together, said her mother, Brandy Williams of Waipahu.

Mya's eyes filled with tears as she looked at a photo of herself and father on a button that her mother pinned to her dress before yesterday's ceremony. Monica Williams, wearing a button with a different photo of her father, looked up at her mother and asked, "Where's Daddy?"

She already knows the answer but likes hearing it.

"Where is Daddy?" her mother replied.

The little girl answered, "In heaven."

"My girls are my heroes," Brandy Williams said. "They'll never get to see their daddy again. Mya has memories, and I'm grateful for that. She likes to talk about him, so we try and keep him alive through his memory. Monica never got to meet him, so it's twice as hard for her in the long run."

Brandy Williams and her daughters attended a Tragedy Assistance Program seminar last month in Washington. Interacting with 130 other children of fallen heroes at the seminar was beneficial for Mya, her mother said.

"Mya really had a great time there just bonding, and actually getting to meet somebody else who lost their daddy was good because I'm not in her shoes," Brandy Williams said. "I grieve in my own way and children grieve in their own way."

Brandy Williams and her daughters also were among 120 families of fallen service members who died from March 2003 to late February of this year to receive Hawai'i Medals of Honor in April.

Reach Rod Ohira at rohira@honoluluadvertiser.com.