Editor
Chester County prizes service to this country. I've seen it, since almost my first day on the job. I wrote a column about looking for a guy who owned all the Volkswagens I used to drive past between Cheraw and Spartanburg, for years.
Another bug aficionado dropped by. Turns out John Adams was a member of one of Patton's armies in World War II. He was there when the army liberated Dachau. He didn't like hearing that some try to claim the Holocaust never happened. He saw it with his own eyes.
But he had that patriotic fervor in his eyes.
I saw it most recently in the attempts of a vet to stand, as military protocol requires, when Spc. Logan Tinsley was presented, posthumously, the Bronze Star and a good conduct award, at his funeral.
I saw it in the veterans groups that lined the hallways of the Chester High School gym for Tinsley's funeral on Jan. 6.
I've met the heads of the county's veterans groups and the county's veterans officer.
One stands out to me because of the way he dresses. When Charlton Blanks appeared before Chester County Council trying to get added staff for the county's veterans office, he was dressed to the nines.
I knew he was a Marine not because of the way he stood straight and tall despite his age.
No, it was his shoes. The shine on his black dress shoes was more than military clean.
It was a U.S. Marine Corps shine. The shoes were black, but pure mirrors.
Blanks is a member of the Marine Corps League, a group of “former Marines” who get together for both fellowship and to provide for each other.
Though many Marines will tell you, unlike other branches of the military, there is no such thing as a “former Marine.” Blanks himself, after talking to Chester County Council, said as much, repeating the Marine Corps slogan, “Semper Fidelis.”
It means always faithful, ever true.
I had mentioned, briefly, to Blanks that my uncle had been in the Marines, had served in a storied division, the 1st Marine Infantry out of Camp Pendleton.
When I talked to Blanks last week about the monument for Logan Tinsley, Blanks asked me about my uncle, as if he were refreshing his memory. But he had it right.
They have many words for that military spirit. Elan, esprit.
It's amazing, that esprit.
McWaters, the county's veterans officers, has it. She's been in the office for decades. She says she's not just responsible for the veterans who live in the county, not just their surviving spouses and dependents. She also takes in any veteran from anywhere in the state who comes to her, if necessary.
“She is our intermediary,” Blanks said.
Nathan Witt, a leader of the Disabled American Veterans and Veterans of Foreign Wars is another who has that special “it.” He's active, busy. He headed up the poppy sales this year. He was there at County Council last week, making sure the right thing was done for Tinsley, the county's first combat casualty since the Vietnam War.
Blanks, McWaters, others were working on getting the money necessary to renovate the county's war memorial to include Tinsley. Founders Federal Credit Union stepped up and said they'd pay what was necessary.
County Council accepted Founders gift. But there are others, McWaters told me last week, who wanted to do something and were willing to donate.
When I heard about talk of a new monument, I was a little concerned at first. After hearing about the gift, I still had to voice my concern.
I asked Blanks and Witt as they left the council meeting.
Do you think it's perhaps too early?
Blanks and Witt both said no.
I wasn't concerned anymore. Blanks hopes there won't be another name on the monument that will be erected in honor of Tinsley. I hope so too.
But his comment makes me think. I went to the monument Monday, checking out again the 158 names on the four obsidian monuments. I looked closer than I had before. I once saw a replica of the Vietnam Wall, and the typeface of Chester County's monument mirrors it.
I saw some names on it that are still family names here.
And I thought about the next monument, coming soon, for another soldier, one we all hope is the last.
The men named on the monuments, and guys like Witt and Blanks, they didn't just serve their country then. They still are serving.
Logan Tinsley volunteered, served, and gave everything he could for his country. He gave all, and is still serving. His brother also is also serving, and is also willing to give all.
We have a letter to the editor from a class of local students to the Tinsley family, hoping the war will end soon. But they sound like they have been taught well.
Tinsley's JROTC instructor, Al Boyd, has a new group of students in the same program at which Tinsley excelled and led fellow cadets to excellence.
I am proud of my country, its heritage, embodied in guys like my uncle, like Adams, Witt and Blanks.
I have little worry for the future.
I'm happy the county is doing something, with Founders help, for Tinsley. I'm especially happy that it's there, at that monument.
Blanks says it's a special place. No county he knows of, nor I know of, has anything like it.
Four monuments list 158 dead. There are flags for the five branches of service, as well as a sixth, the POW/MIA flag. All surround the American flag, at half staff right now.
When you walk into the circle of flags, Blanks said in September, something gets into “your hearts and minds,” he said. “It's wonderful.”
It has a certain “esprit,” he said.
“It means something.”
Column originally posted Jan 23, 2007 - 23:11:23 EST
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