Community Corner

Viewfinder: Enumclaw Area VFW Honor Guard Pays Respects to Pierce County Vets

Under a heavy snow storm Sunday, about a dozen members of Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1949 paid tribute to 51 veterans from Pierce County who have died in the last year and never received the honors they earned.

The wind and snow didn't deter them.Β 

After all, the dozen or so veterans who came to the Purple Heart Monument in Enumclaw on Sunday to honor 51 Pierce County veterans who died in the past year but never received the honors they deserved, have been through much worse.

The ceremony was performed by the Honor Guart of Post 1949 in conjunction with the Washington Army National Guard and included a name ceremony, a gun salute and the sounding of Taps by a live bugler.Β 

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On Sunday, the following veterans were honored:

William Warn Badgley Sr.

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John A. Baker Sr.

John Floyd Barlow

Donald Gene Berntsen

Charles Herbert Bowers

Rodney L. Brockley

Laura Anne Carlson

Gordon Laverne Christopherson

George Thomas Cochran

James E. Collins

John Charles Conn

Douglas Lee Converse

Donald Marcus Costlow

Miriam L. Cowan

Ray W. Criswell

William Robert Davies

Theon Ranlett Deckrow Jr.

Michael Leonard Dugger

Roy Donald Earl

Edward Charles Gates

Robert Herman Haag

Raymond H. Hansen

Kenneth Wayne Harkness

Jeffrey Carlyle Heineman

Theodore Hergert

Ronald William Hill

George Allen Hollingsworth

Robert A. Hokenson

Reuben Clarence Kanzler

Frank Edward Kimmerly

Russell Dale Kingston

Benjamin Tafalla Laurente Sr.

Herbert Arthur Leland

Robert Lloyd Malone

Donald Ray Morris

Tristan Scott Nerheim

Thomas William Osborn

John A. Petrich

Roy William Rauschert

Arther Richert

Paul David Shields

Kenneth H. Slaker

Carl Edward Stracener

Hugh Bennet Sweeney

Hubert Brixey Taylor

Dale Leland Thomas

Darrell Dale Thon

Neil Arthur Thornhill

Henry Eugene Vannini Jr.

Larry Keith Whalen

Lester Paul Wohlers

As there remain South Sound veterans who died before being able to receive their honors for serving, such ceremonies will be held on the fourth Sunday of each month, moving forward, at 1 p.m. at the Purple Heart Monument in Enumclaw.


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