Remembering the nation's heroes
beckley – 'The nation which forgets its defenders will be itself forgotten.' — Calvin Coolidge.
The 20th anniversary of the LZRainelle Veterans Reunion in Rainelle is one of several events which will provide residents in the region opportunities to pay homage to those who have given their lives to protect the country's freedom.
Also, the Raleigh County Veterans and First Responders Museum and the American Legion Post 32 Veterans Cemetery will be sites for several Memorial Day weekend events.
The LZRainelle event commenced Thursday and will run through Monday, May 26.
Run For The Wall is an organized cross-country motorcycle ride to honor veterans, their families and friends and to raise awareness of those still missing — Prisoners of War (POW) and Missing in Action (MIA).
After the Run For The Wall riders arrived Thursday and spent some time with Rainelle Elementary students and members of the public, they continued their journey to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., according to Emma Michelinie, chair of the LZRainelle Veterans Reunion committee. But, that doesn't put an end to the Greenbrier County activities. Riders representing Task Force Omega (TFO) of Kentucky, which was part of the group that launched Run For The Wall in 1989, will remain in Rainelle the rest of the weekend and take part in events. TFO will hold a service at Ponderosa Lodge on Rte. 60 before they depart the area on Sunday.
Other than the arrival and departure of the phalanx of riders Thursday, another prime highlight of the weekend in Rainelle was Friday night's anticipated candlelight memorial service at the Mountaineer Veterans Garden of Honor. In that scenario, thousands of flags, one representing each West Virginia soldier killed in action from World War I to present day, are displayed at the intersection of Rte. 60 and Rte. 20, on the hillside in front of Rainelle Medical Center. The display features about 1,000 solar lights, and organizers call it 'spectacular by day, serene by night.' It is on full display through Memorial Day.
An annual parade will begin at noon Saturday in Rainelle, with lineup starting at 11 a.m. Entries will be accepted to the time of lineup. 'The more, the better,' said Michelinie. West Virginia Gold Star Mothers will lead the parade as grand marshals. The parade will be graded by a point system, with a grand prize being awarded to the most patriotic entry, as well as winners in each of eight categories. Money prizes will be awarded.
Other Saturday highlights will include a Beckley Sno Biz food booth, music from Thomas Wayne Danley, Hidden Mountain Treasures and Goodson Boys, a bicycle contest, the annual murbles tournament and a fireworks display.
Throughout the weekend, visitors to Rainelle are encouraged to view the Greenbrier County Gold Star Mothers' Living Memorial Apple Orchard on Simms Mountain Road (3290 Tincher Road, Rainelle, WV 25962).
Michelinie said 'there's no words' to describe what the reunion weekend and activities mean to the community and to veterans and their families themselves. Locals continuing to put action behind their appreciation for those who have died defending their country is crucial, she said.
LZRainelle was established in 2005. For more information on the schedule of events, visit lzrainelle.org/events-schedule/.
• • •
The Raleigh County Veterans and First Responders Museum (201 South Eisenhower Drive, Beckley, WV 25801) will be open over the Memorial Day weekend on Saturday, Sunday and Monday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. There will be many displays, as well as special guests and raffles for items and gifts.
There is no admission cost; however, donations are appreciated.
The schedules is as follows:
• Saturday, May 24: Place flags on headstones at the Veterans Cemetery, 9 a.m.; museum open for visitors from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• Sunday, May 25: Museum open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; candlelight service at the Veterans Cemetery, 8 p.m.
• Monday, May 26: Museum open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; honor flags display, 12 p.m.
Individuals can meet at the American Legion Post 32 Veterans Cemetery at 9 a.m. on Saturday to place flags on all of the headstones. Coffee, hot cocoa and doughnuts will be supplied.
On Sunday, May 25, the candlelight service will be staged at the cemetery at 8 p.m. The event will feature a short concert of patriotic music by the Salvation Army's Beckley Brass Band. After the music, candlelights will be placed on each of the headstones. There is some seating, and refreshments will be provided.
For information, call Ron Hedrick at 304-228-6939.
Notes:
• The Dandelion Festival in White Sulphur Springs will run through Sunday, May 25. The activities on Sunday will include a veterans luncheon at Paisley Park (12 to 1:30 p.m.), to be catered by The Schoolhouse Hotel, and a veterans memorial service on the Main Stage (2 to 3 p.m.).
• The New River Gorge National Park and Preserve will open up the Thurmond Depot and the Grandview Visitor Center on Saturday, May 24, and both will be open through the Memorial Day weekend, according to a park spokesperson. Summer hours for both those facilities will be: Thurmond — 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., open Wednesday to Sunday; and Grandview — 12 to 5 p.m., open Friday to Sunday.
Thurmond Depot tours will start next week at 11 a.m. on days the depot is open. There will also be afternoon talks at the Canyon Rim Visitor Center and pop-up programs at Sandstone and Grandview.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Yahoo
Site of first purpose-built prisoner of war camp saved by Historic England funding
The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars saw thousands of enemy prisoners incarcerated in the UK; so many that the Admiralty, with responsibility for their welfare, had to devise swift solutions to cope with rocketing numbers. One was the construction of what was reputedly the first purpose-built prisoner of war camp, sited on the Great North Road in Cambridgeshire – far from the sea so prisoners could not easily escape back to France. Assembled in four months using 500 carpenters and labourers, the camp, south-west of Peterborough near the village of Yaxley, housed 7,000 mainly French prisoners – mostly low-ranking soldiers and sailors, with some privateers – at its peak between 1797 and 1814. Now the historic Napoleonic Norman Cross prison depot site, which contains the remains of the camp, has been saved for the nation after being bought by Nene Park Trust with £200,000 grant funding from Historic England and £50,000 from The National Lottery Heritage Fund. The Norman Cross site became the prototype for the further development of military prisons. Functioning as a self-contained town – with barracks, offices, a hospital, school, marketplace and banking system – the prison element measured about 250m by 270m and was designed around four quadrangles. Each had four two-storey wooden accommodation blocks for prisoners, as well as latrines, an exercise yard, two turnkeys' lodges, a store-house and cooking house. There was also a prison hospital. Battles were being fought in Europe, the Caribbean, north Africa and the Indian Ocean. An estimated 200,000 soldiers and sailors were captured and brought to the UK, the majority French, but also Dutch and other nationalities. Their welfare was the responsibility of the Transport Board of the Admiralty, and they were held in a network of prisons, prison ships, parole depots and land prisons. Norman Cross was the first of three purpose built inland 'depots', with the others at Dartmoor and Perth. Prisoners were allowed to make products – including artefacts such as toys, model ships and dominos sets carved from wood or animal bone – to sell at a regular market. Many such items were excavated during a visit by the Time Team TV show in July 2009. The last prisoners left in 1814 and the camp was dismantled two years later. A memorial to the 1,770 prisoners who died there, mainly due to disease including Typhus, was erected in 1914. There is no public access to the site, but there are plans to enable visitors to explore the area, while ensuring that the land is farmed sympathetically to preserve the archaeological remains beneath. Paul Chamberlain, an author and historian, said: 'This acquisition will enable more of the story to be told for future generations and provide us with a better understanding of a lost town that had a significant impact on the region over 200 years ago.' The heritage minister, Baroness Twycross, said: 'The remarkable stories of those held in what was the first purpose-built prisoner of war camp should be remembered now and in the future.'
Yahoo
15 hours ago
- Yahoo
Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum WWII panel features two veterans' tales of valor
Driving rain fell with the ferocity of machinegun fire while thunder bombarded the National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force's rotunda as if it were distant air strike's. Yet, the elements could not overcome the power of the stories being told by World War II veteran airmen 1st Lieutenant Kenneth Beckman and Staff Sergeant Bruce Cook during the museum's 5th Annual WWII panel. Sean O'Dwyer, the museum's education program manager and panel moderator, said while all four panelists from last year's event were alive, Beckman, 102, and Cook, 99, were the only two who could make the trip. Beckman, originally from Northampton, Massachusetts, now hails from St. Petersburg, Florida. Cook lives in West Columbia, South Carolina. The two told stories about close calls, fellow crewmen's practical jokes and harrowing missions. They did so to the best of their recollections, which were much better than they let on, particularly Beckman's as many of his stories were accompanied by the exact date of the mission. The panel was one portion of Sunday's events, which were part of four days of Memorial Day events that the museum planned in honor of the 26,000 airmen of the Eighth Airforce who never returned from WWII. More of the museum's Flags for the Fallen events have been planned for Monday, May 26. O'Dwyer asked the two centenarians a series of questions, helping them call up long dormant moments from their pasts. He started by asking what they were doing when Pearl Harbor was attacked on Dec. 7, 1941. Cook said he was 16 and standing in a doorway when someone came by saying that the Hawaiian naval station had been bombed. "And to me, that didn't mean a whole lot," he said because he had never heard of it before. Beckman actually resigned from the Naval Academy because his roommate's grandfather was a doctor with the with the Navy, and he had heard that a war with Japan was "just around the corner." So he signed up with the Army Air Corp in November of 1941. For him, Dec. 7 of that year started like any other day until about 4 p.m. when he heard what had happened at Pearl Harbor. Beckman went on to serve as a navigator within the 305th Bomb Group while Cook was a waist/ball gunner and toggler for the 379th. Beckman attributed his desire to be an aviator to his first flying experience when he was five years old. The manager of Northampton airport knew his father and invited Beckman for a ride in a two-seater airplane. During the war, he went on 48 missions over two tours. He signed up for a second tour after he decided he wanted to become a permanent officer. He flew with two U.S. presidents, Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower. Beckman described two close calls he had in service. One involved a German pilot who flew his Messerschmitt Me 262 "absolutely vertical" 20 feet off the right wing, so close Beckman could see he was blond with glasses and a white scarf. "I guess I saw him for all of a split second," he said, but he never forgot it. Another close call occurred when his crew's right wing engine had been hit and caught fire. He called that a death notice because a fire usually proceeded an explosion, which typically meant crew members had five to 10 seconds to grab a parachute and jump. In that moment, he secured his parachute and dangled his feet out the escape hatch and then he heard a copilot tell everyone the fire was out. He did not have to jump. Had he jumped he would have done so over enemy territory and undoubtedly been taken as a prisoner of war. Cook could not recall ever being scared beyond his first mission when he told a peer he could not get into the ball turret with his parachute on. The peer said that they could leave his parachute aside and if they got shot down maybe he could get up and grab it in time. Cook was then worried the whole four hours and fifteen minutes of that first, and likely his shortest, mission. Beyond that, he did not recall being scared very much in the air. He did remember a time when a plane ahead of his caught fire. The flames streamed behind it so much that a crewman on his plane thought their plane had caught fire and a miscommunication led another crewman to grab his chute and jump out over enemy territory. Cook told another story of how he shot at an approaching fighter, taking him out. Later the other gunner on the plane also claimed to have shot the enemy fighter down. When the crew got back to base they flipped a coin to see who would claim the hit. "Malone won," he said. Years later when he looked at the military records it only stated that a bomber shot down a fighter, giving no particular airman credit. Both Cook and Beckman flew dozens of missions throughout their tours of duty. Cook joked that officers and enlisted men such as himself did not always hang out during the war, but it was an honor to be speaking with Beckman about their experiences and the men they served with. Beckman and Cook, while grateful for the museum's recognition, deflected any praise heaped upon them. When asked to reflect on Memorial Day's meaning, Cook said he did not deserve the praise that the museum and community were giving him. To underscore the point of the holiday, he recollected one more story of a fellow airman who was less fortunate. During the war, a young man Cook referred to as Albert was moved to another plane to make way for Cook's return to his crew. Cook said on Albert's first mission with the new crew their plane was shot down. Albert and others bailed out over enemy territory while the crew's pilot went down with the plane. For Beckman, Memorial Day is an "opportunity for me to think about the fellows that didn't make it, they were the real heroes." He then paused before expressing that he was at a loss for words "to describe how wonderful life can be when the world is at peace." Joseph Schwartzburt is the education and workforce development reporter for the Savannah Morning News. You can reach him at JSchwartzburt@ and JoeInTheKnow_SMN on Instagram. This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum WWII panel features two veterans
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
Residents shocked after unexpected creature wanders into backyard: 'The police don't want us to go outside'
A bear wandered into a backyard in Prince George's County, Maryland, forcing residents to take their Memorial Day plans indoors, NBC4 Washington reported. The young bear, approximately 18 months old, according to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, lounged in a tree in a backyard around noon. "We were going to the playground with my daughter. We canceled because the police don't want us to go outside," one resident said, per NBC4 Washington. The bear stayed in the tree until 3:30 p.m. Then, DNR officers relocated it to a wildlife management area. While some Langley Park residents thought the encounter was exciting and memorable, such occurrences reflect a broader pattern. Close encounters between humans and wildlife are becoming more frequent. The cause is habitat loss, and it's happening on a global scale. In 2024, the World Wildlife Fund reported a catastrophic 73% decline in wildlife populations worldwide between 1970 and 2020. Freshwater species (85%) suffered the steepest drops, followed by land (69%) and marine life (56%). These losses stem largely from habitat destruction, overharvesting, and changes to our climate, many of which are linked to human land use and food production systems. As urban development expands and forested areas shrink, wild animals are forced to search for food and shelter in suburban and residential areas. While the situation in Maryland ended peacefully, that is not always the case. Wildlife encounters not only put people at risk but also stress animals. Animals can get hurt or become disoriented and may face euthanasia by authorities. Should the government be paying people to hunt invasive species? Definitely Depends on the animal No way Just let people do it for free Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. Globally, major restoration efforts are underway to reverse damage from decades of habitat destruction. Government initiatives and independent groups are working to revive ecosystems through reforestation, wetland recovery, and wildlife corridor development. Individuals can help by getting involved in local conservation efforts and staying informed about how urbanization impacts local ecosystems. Respecting wildlife, securing trash, and protecting green spaces are small but powerful ways to coexist with nature and prevent backyard surprises. Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
