Honoring those who served
Veterans Day is still a week away, but the Covenant Life Fellowship church in Canton Township got a jump on the commemorations Sunday morning with a service given over to honoring local servicemen.
Both Washington County Commissioner Larry Maggi and state Rep. Brandon Neuman, D-North Strabane Township, were on hand for the event, which spotlighted the achievements and sacrifices of five veterans: Charles R. Davenport of Washington; James H. Taylor of Prosperity; Ronald M. Hestdalen, the director of National Cemetery of the Alleghenies in Cecil Township; Robert A. Carmen of Claysville; and Larry Simpson Jr. of Washington.
“We should always give respect for our servicemen and women for what they do and what they stand for,” Hestdalen said.
Neither Davenport nor Simpson were present. Davenport, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran of both World War II and the subsequent engagement on the Korean peninsula, died last year at the age of 89. Simpson received the Purple Heart after being injured in the Oct. 23, 1983, bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon, and died Aug. 31, 1992. Family members were there, though, to reminisce and look back on their lives.
Eadrik Davenport noted his father joined the Marines in World War II, a time when there was still considerable racism directed at African Americans. But the elder Davenport was heartened to see Colin Powell become chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff and Barack Obama become commander in chief in his lifetime, his son said.
Eadrick said his father always said military service “helped to make you a better person.”
Carmen, who received the Purple Heart for injuries he received in the Vietnam War, choked up and paused when he said “my thoughts always go back to the guys who didn’t make it home.”
Covenant Life Fellowship started the annual service honoring veterans in 2007. In the first service, they honored just one veteran, and the number has expanded in the years since.
“We felt that it’s the right thing to do,” said Linus Mayernik, a member of Covenant Life Fellowship who interviewed each of the veterans or their survivors in front of the congregation. “We always wanted to do something to honor veterans.”
Sharing that Southwestern Pennsylvania has one of the nation’s highest concentrations of veterans, Maggi, who is a Marine Corps veteran, handed out citations to the former servicemen who were being lionized. Neuman, who also had commendations from Pennsylvania’s House of Representatives to give to the honorees, pointed out that “we have to support our troops. They’re faithfully defending us.”