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Harry Funk
A veteran pays tribute
He can dish it out and he can take it, fielding comedic jabs tossed his way with a shrug, a tight-lipped smile and usually a good comeback.
I got him once, though. He was talking about his time in the Army, during the Vietnam era, and the subject of servicemen's salaries arose.
"Yeah, the military couldn't have been paying too much," I agreed with him, pausing for proper effect: "Back in the '40s."
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When it comes to the American military, though, Dave is serious to the point of reverence. Perhaps it's because he met his lovely - there's no better word to describe her - wife, Lynn, when she outranked him in the Army.
Or it's the consistent reminders, through his position as president of Forest Lawn Gardens cemetery in McMurray, of the sacrifices that have been made throughout the decades on behalf of our nation.
In the mid-1980s, Dave decided to do something to recognize U.S. military personnel, particularly those who died in the Vietnam War. The result is the Garden of Five Flags, a magnificent granite and bronze memorial near the northeast corner of the cemetery.
Fast-forward to 2009, and Dave told me he was cleaning out some filing cabinets and came across an article I'd written a full decade before about the memorial. At the time, an exhibit called the Wall That Heals, a mobile version of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall, was making a stop in Washington.
"It draws great crowds wherever it goes," I quoted Dave as saying. "People want to touch those names."
Many of those names, though, had been a fixture at Forest Lawn for years: Several handsome stone blocks carry the names of all 3,133 Pennsylvanians "who gave their lives in freedom's cause" in the Vietnam era. Other engraved blocks recognize the veterans of both World Wars and Korea.
The whole package serves a unique tribute, particularly with regard to Vietnam vets, who still were pretty much getting short shrift when Dave embarked on the project.
As far as Forest Lawn, the cemetery has a history of honoring those who served. In 1972, a B-25 bomber was placed on a pedestal at what's now the Garden of Five Flags site; those flags, by the way, represent the five branches of the U.S. military.
"In 1984, Regina donated the historic plane to the Valiant Air Command Museum in Florida, where it was restored to flying condition." (Not to be lazy, but I'm quoting my own '99 article.)
So to all veterans on this Veterans Day 2009, that's the story of one of your own, a man who knows how to pay tribute to those who have served our country.
And he has a good sense of humor, too.
See a video about the memorial at www.observer-reporter.com. Online editor Harry Funk can be reached at hfunk@observer-reporter.com.
