Friday, Nov. 14, 2008

Remembering our heroes

Sculpture unveiled, veterans added to memorial

By SARAH JUNEK

Against a canopy of turning leaves, the last piece of Keller Veterans Memorial Park was unveiled in a ceremony Saturday morning.

The Protector of Freedom, a 13-foot sculpture of an eagle in flight, is flanked by six granite pillars bearing the names of 312 military veterans from Keller. The bronze eagle looks out over the city’s most prominent intersection, Keller Parkway and U.S. 377.

"Of all the things the Public Arts Board did, this is the best," said former board director John Baker, who now is on City Council.

The board, which advises the council on public art, led the effort to get the statue. Arlington artist Darrel Davis was commissioned for $80,000, of which the city contributed $55,000, said Paul Blakeley, a park organizer. The rest was raised by various community groups.

"My hope is that the sculpture merely draws people into the area so that they are engaged to take a closer look at what is written on the granite tablets," Davis said.

In addition to the sculpture dedication, Saturday’s ceremony also featured the addition of 33 names to the memorial. Some of those veterans attended the ceremony.

"The beautiful part about this park is it’s not only for the veterans in the past, but it will be there for the ones coming back today and tomorrow," said Blakeley, a veteran charged with collecting names for the memorial.

At the ceremony, Blakeley, who joined the Navy after graduating from Keller High School in 1943, recalled that his "happiest moment as a returning vet was seeing the Keller water tower," at the Keller Parkway-U.S. 377 intersection.

"Thinking about your home" was all anybody did when exposed to enemy fire, he said.

The park serves as a reminder to veterans, their families and the community of the sacrifices made in order to serve the country.

One such veteran, retired Air Force Col. Walter Pine, who moved to Keller 21 years ago, said he appreciates the respect Keller gives its veterans. Hailing from Chino, Calif., Pine is not eligible to have his name on the memorial. Veterans must enter the military while living in Keller to qualify.

After the ceremony, Pine reflected on his service during World War II, the Korean War and Vietnam War.

Pine, who was given a Congressional Veterans Commendation by U.S. Rep. Michael Burgess at a separate ceremony Tuesday, piloted planes such as the large B-17 and B-29 bombers in World War II and C-47 and C-130 transport aircraft in Korea and Vietnam.

In 1952, he spent up to nine hours a day flying over Korea, supervising a 50-man crew and working on the plane’s gun sight communication system. After his tour of duty, the thrills of flying led him back to active service.

"I thrived on what I had missed," Pine said of his decision to return to Korea.

After World War II, he returned home but found it difficult to fit in; nothing was as exciting as flying, he said. The realization led him to make a career of military service.

But military life wasn’t all good. Pine recalled a list of his hometown buddies who joined the military with him but didn’t return from combat.

And service comes with heavy demands, which were hardest on his family.

Soldiers are "part of an organization transplanted from someplace in the U.S. to someplace overseas," Pine said. "But the wife and kids have a severe change in environment when the service member is gone.

In his absence, Pine’s wife and three daughters wrote daily letters. As technology progressed, he sent her audio tapes and phoned frequently.

Still, there was a void.

"We just kept busy and tried not to dwell on it," his wife, Marilyn, said.