MISSING IN ACTION REMEMBERED — Kole Waggle of the Brooke High School Future Leaders Program placed a rose on a table representing the many American service members who are missing in action while American Legion District 1 Vice Commander, left, and Follansbee American Legion Post 45 Commander Tom Mirabella, right, reflected on the sacrifices made by those veterans during Follansbee’s Memorial Day service. -- Warren Scott

Velegol and leaders of the American Legion reflected on the more than 1.1 million American servicemen and women who lost their lives in wars.

Keith Brown, American Legion Department of West Virginia vice commander and chaplain-adjutant for Post 45, noted Follansbee natives Emrys Watkins, for whom the post is named, and Salvatore Stillitano were both killed in action while serving in France during World War I.

“It’s because of heroes like them, that we’re here today,” said Brown, who read the names of local veterans who lost their lives while serving their country.

He also told of Army Lt. Pascal Poolaw of Oklahoma, who had retired after serving in World War II and the Korean War when his sons’ enlistment during Vietnam War prompted him to return to military service.

A MILITARY SALUTE — Members of the Ohio Valley Veterans Memorial Squad saluted the many veterans who lost their lives in service to their country as James Mirabella played taps during Follansbee’s Memorial Day Service. -- Warren Scott

Brown noted Poolaw was killed in the Battle of Loc Ninh while attempting to pull a wounded fellow soldier to safety.

He also reflected on the deaths of Coast Guard officers Angus Nelson McLean and James Frost, who were among crew aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Tampa when it was torpedoed and sunk by a German U-boat during World War I.

Brown said policy at that time prevented the men from being awarded the Purple Heart, an honor bestowed upon service members wounded or killed in action, but at the urging of the American Legion, the medals were presented to the men’s families in March.

He alluded to Abraham Lincoln, who in his Gettysburg Address, reflected on the soldiers killed in that infamous Civil War battle.

Lincoln said, “The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.”

Brown said it falls to all living Americans “to recommit ourselves to the cause of freedom and justice so their legacy is carried on.”

American Legion District 1 Vice Commander Robert “Doc” Pope and Post 45 Commander Tom Mirabella also remembered the many service members declared missing in action through the presentation of an empty table and other symbols representing them and loved ones who await news of their fates.

The two were aided by the following members of the Brooke High School Future Leaders Program: Jamie Ellison, Alex Obeldobel, Triston Stevens, Kole Waggle and Joey Hoggard.

Also participating in the service were: Eric Fithyan, president of the Follansbee Chamber of Commerce; Bill Haught, past Department of West Virginia and Post 45 commander; Chuck Lucas, who provided music; the Ohio Valley Veterans Memorial Squad, which delivered a military salute; and James Mirabella, who played taps.