Ten local heroes receive recognition during Independence Day veterans recognition
Janet Morales - July 19, 2010The thought of the Fourth of July conjures fireworks and barbecues. We know it is meant for the celebration of the independence of our country. When we think about it, we are thankful to have the freedoms that we do. But without special time set aside, we often take for granted how we obtained these freedoms and what it cost to keep them.
A crowd came to Oakland Cemetery Saturday morning to remember. It is those who have fought in our nation’s wars and struggles that have kept us free enough to argue the merits of such actions. Service, sacrifice, loyalty and remembrance were the key components of the day.
Approximately 200 flags were up catching the breeze and sunshine Saturday morning. Each flag has a plaque in honor of, or in memory of, a Randolph County veteran.
The flags fly thanks to Phil Merry and Mary Wolf, co-coordinators of the Veteran Flag Project. It was they who brought the idea to Randolph County after seeing it done in Centralia. But Merry acknowledged during the ceremony that it would not be possible without the help of who he calls the “Willing Workers”.
“In June a year ago,” said Merry, “the Spartan football players put in 50 ground sleeves. That meant carrying 50 80-pound bags of concrete.”
Merry said the Project received similar help last spring from the girls and boys cross country team, putting in 100 sleeves, with 50 more installed by the Spartan baseball team. A year ago, people from New Hope United Methodist helped put the flags up for the first Independence Day observance and Spartan softball players took them down. Last fall, students of Central Christian College of the Bible raised and lowered the flags for Veterans Day and local Boy Scouts offered their aid this year for memorial Day. Timber Lake Church volunteers put the flags up for this Fourth of July and the Columbia Civil Air Patrol will aid them in taking them down this week.
“Without all those who have volunteered,” said Merry, “this could not be.”
Ten local heroes were recognized with many of them represented by family in the audience. Their flags are in what is termed the Avenue of Honor so all who travel past can remember and pay tribute to their service and sacrifice.
Mary Wolf read their names “with profound honor and deepest respect.”
PFC Carney Burnham, July 7, 1944 US Army
PFC Burnham went ashore on Omaha Beach D-Day. He was KIA July 7, 1944 in Cherbourg, France – on the Cotentin Peninsula – Basse Normandie.
EM2 Charles Harris April 114, 1944 US Navy
Electrician’s Mate Harris was a veteran of action with both the Atlantic and Pacific fleets. He was KIA in the South Pacific.
2nd Lt. George R. Austin September 8, 1944 US Army Air Corp
Despite losing their fighter escort, Lt. Austin’s crew continued their bombing mission over Kassel, Germany. During a fierce air fight, his plane, one of 35 dispatched on this mission, sustained a direct hit. Lt. Austin went down on his plane. Surviving crew parachuted out and were taken P.O.W. Of 35 bombers dispatched that day, 29 planes were shot down and only six planes returned to base.
PFC William F. Lierly September 24, 1944 US Army
PFC Lierly served in the 101st Airborne.
SP4 Billy Jackson Dailey September 22, 1966 US Army
SSgt. Robert K. Duckworth 1944 US Army Air Force
Staff Sgt. Duckworth served as a Ball Turret Gunner on a B-24 bomber. He was killed in 1944 over Marshall Islands.
Lt. Marvin Udell Mead September 1944 US Navy Aviator
PFC Fred Gene McCormick February 22, 1951 US Army
PFC McCormick was KIA in the Korean Conflict. He served in the 5th Cavalry Infantry and the 1st Cavalry Infantry division.
Sgt. Kenneth Eugene Waterfield US Army Air Corp
Sgt. Waterfield was taken prisoner in Occupied France 1944. He broke his ankle during a parachute jump.
Msgt. Albert Durham US Army
MSgt. Durham spent 2 ½ years in Germany’s Stalag 13. MSgt. Durham was liberated by Gen. George S. Patton’s Troops.
Wolf read the Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln which states in part, “It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us – that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion – that we were highly resolved that these dead shall not have died in vain….”