• Community rallies to honor Star Valley’s fallen soldiers

 

Four Star Valley High School welding students have completed the construction of 30 Gold Star Monuments that the local American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars plan to place at the burial site of every Star Valley service member who has been killed in action.

Throughout the winter and early spring, the Star Valley Historical Society collected names and learned the history of each fallen soldier while Jerry Lainhart, who has served as Post Commander to VFW Post #4797 in Afton and Shawn Merritt, who teaches Welding at SVHS, created a design for the monuments that will document the lives of 23 or more service members who were killed in action.

In mid-May, when the monument design was completed and the names and biographical data had been collected, the young welders, using metal that was donated by a private donor, and under Merritt’s direction, began cutting and then assembling the various metal components.

“It feels good to give back to people in the community who served us in the military and have given their lives for us,” said SVHS senior and fabricator, Holden Dana. “It’s good that we can do something for them to remember them.”

The monuments are intended to recognize each “service member from our community that paid the ultimate sacrifice for the country and freedom we, and citizens of communities throughout the world, enjoy today,” said Lainhart. “We want the life sketch [as part of the monument] to bring each service member to life so people reading it might feel like they know him.”

SVHS senior and fabricator, Kolbe Merritt, is pleased to “show respect and thank [our servicemen and women] for serving our country and putting their lives on the line to protect us.”

American Legion Commanders Ty Campbell and Dennis Christensen, who administer the two legions in Star Valley, are charged with etching the photos and life sketches into the metal sheeting of the monuments. The VFW is supplying 30 Gold Star flags to be used for the project.

Lainhart is pleased to have “our high school students take significant roles in preparing these monuments to be a lasting part of our valley.” He is hoping that the youth will understand “what this project means to the veteran community.”

SVHS sophomore Tygun Merritt, who has been cutting metal pieces for the monuments on the C and T plasma cutter with fellow student Landon Dokken, shared his thoughts about the project. “I think that it’s great that we get to show our respect by building something to really honor them in our town and remember them.”

“Each completed monument will be given to the respective cemetery district for display at the burial site of each service member where applicable,” or the burial site of a mother, grandmother or spouse’s grave if appropriate, “or at the respective community veteran memorial if one exists when the member is buried overseas or their remains were not recovered,” said Lainhart. “We want to honor and remember the sacrifices made by families if the service member is not buried locally.”

“This is a wonderful opportunity to remind the community that freedom isn’t free and there are those in our community that paid the ultimate sacrifice for freedom as we celebrate 250 years of independence,” said Lainhart.

Editor’s note: This project is separate from the effort linked to The Wall That Heals, which honors Vietnam service members who were killed in action. Star Valley’s Vietnam War Dead will have two monuments through the two initiatives.