Memorial on the move
Kriss Svidro, a Girl Scout volunteer who found the memorial stone of Marine Cpl. David Eugene Helve, says a last goodbye after ceremonies at the former Girl Scout camp Saturday.
Jim Walters, with U.S. Marine Detachment 1138, salutes as taps are played for the late Marine Cpl. David Eugene Helve Saturday.
Jim Walters, with U.S. Marine Deatchment 1138, reads about the late Marine Cpl. David Eugene Hevle to the crowd attending a service Saturday.
U.S. Marine Cpl. David Eugene Hevle’s boots never touched the soil of Southwestern Pennsylvania.
But for nearly 46 years, a 360-pound stone marker at Camp Timberlake in Washington County has commemorated Hevle’s life, cut short when he died April 8, 1967, in the jungles of South Vietnam.
Now, Girl Scouts of Western Pennsylvania is selling the camp, and the memorial will be sent more than 1,000 miles to Hevle’s hometown and final resting place, Yankton, S.D.
On Saturday, Girls Scouts from troops 50712 and 52360, local Vietnam veterans and military organizations gathered at Camp Timberlake for a ceremony before the memorial’s departure.
The stone memorial was moved earlier this week by Greenlee Funeral Home from underbrush, where Girl Scout volunteer Kriss Svidro recently stumbled across the long-forgoten marker, to a clearing on the campground for the ceremony.
Jim Walters, District 10 Vice-Commandant of the Pennsylvania Marine Corps League Detachment and a Vietnam veteran, commended Hevle for his service and thanked the Girl Scouts for helping to unravel the mystery of why the memorial was there.
According to Svidro, Hevle served in Vietnam with Beallsville area native Robert Rasel, who now lives in New Mexico. A Junior Girl Scout troop of third- through fifth-graders who sent cards and gifts to Rasel during the war began to send care packages to Hevle, too.
Hevle, 22, an amphibious assault vehicle crewman, was killed when his tractor hit a mine and exploded. The Girl Scouts planted a tree and placed the marker nearby in memory of the young marine.
“We are here today to honor the memory of Marine David E. Hevle and the memory of all other Vietnam veterans.
“When his family visits his final resting place, they will know that he was loved and respected as a person and as a Marine by a group of young ladies who did not know him personally but knew him in their thoughts and hearts and truly appreciated his sacrifice,” said Walters. “Thank you, Marine David Hevle, for your sacrifice.”
During the ceremony, Girl Scout Livia Schleicher, 10, and her brother, Gerard, 12, a Boy Scout, played Taps on bugle, and members of the Marine Corps League fired a gun salute to honor the fallen soldier.
Marine Corps League Chaplain David White prayed for Hevle and other fallen soldiers.
“We pause to remember that our blessings and our liberties and our rights have been secured at great sacrifice to others. These gifts we treasure, know that they are ours because of the valor of this fallen hero, Marine David Eugene Hevle, and those like him throughout our nation and the free world. May this memorial service be an appropriate tribute to the valor and sacrifice made by Cpl. Hevle and by all of our nation’s military fallen,” said White.
Total Safety, a safety company that serves the oil and gas industry, is paying to ship the memorial to Yankton, where it will be placed by Hevle’s gravesite in the Garden of Memories, next to his parents. Greenlee Funeral Home is providing the crate for shipment.
The memorial stone and Hevle’s connection to area Girl Scouts struck a chord in the community.
“He died in 1967, and I graduated from high school in April 1967. His life ended when my life was really just starting,” said Svidro. “I’m so pleased that everything fell together and we’re able to move the stone back to where his family is.”
Rasel plans to visit Hevle’s gravesite this summer and hopes to meet up with Hevle’s family.
“I’m tickled to death that we’re moving this marker to his hometown. I think it’s terrific that the Girl Scouts, the Marine Corps League and the Marianna Legion took it upon themselves to make it happen,” said Rasel, who called the efforts to transport the memorial stone and the interest in Hevle’s life and death bittersweet. “It’s unusual that people took such interest, and I’m proud of the people who did. Now I know the marker will be taken care of.”