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Veterans honored in annual Vienna ceremony

By Jess Mancini 3 min read

VIENNA – Vietnam veteran Russell Griffith remembers his first exposure to death in the military.

He was a young boy when his neighbor came to the house and said his son was killed in Korea. The man broke down, Griffith said.

"I'll never forget," said Griffith, the keynote speaker at the Veterans Day observance Saturday in Vienna at the Gold Star Memorial at Spencer's Landing.

"His only son was dead," Griffith said.

Griffith went into the U.S. Army in 1963 and served 13 months in Vietnam. He was discharged in 1966 and married his wife, the former Lola Jean Linch, the daughter of the late Junior Ray Linch, one of the five men enshrined on the Gold Star Memorial at Spencer's Landing.

"I thank God for getting me through those times and getting me home," he told a crowd of several hundred people.

Griffith said his good friend, Benjamin Jones, also a graduate from Parkersburg High School where he was a wrestler, was killed in Vietnam. Jones was 20 when he died in March 1968, according to archives.

"He was way too young to die," Griffith said.

Griffith said he remembers most of his service, from induction at Fairmont, W.Va., to his discharge. Occasionally he runs into veterans with whom he served.

"Sometimes I can't remember their names, but I remember their faces," Griffith said.

Veterans Day honors and thanks the men and women who honorably served, Griffith said.

"The life we have, we would not have without their sacrifice, their sacrifice," Mayor Randy Rapp said.

Griffith left with the audience a book of World War II servicemen from West Virginia, which said didn't include members of his family, and a list of the 26 Wood Countians killed in the Vietnam War.

Rapp was the moderator of the ceremony that included the Marine Corps League Detachment 1087, the opening prayer by Pastor Brian Leversee of the Fellowship Baptist Church and Carlin's Battery D Civil War re-enactment group.

The mayor read the names of 26 servicemen from Wood County who died in Vietnam

Carlin's Battery D fired a three-round volley from a ceremonial cannon, the report echoing off the hills in Washington County.

Rapp's grandson Caleb Dawson, led the Pledge of Allegiance, and Cragin Blevins sang the national anthem with Rapp on the stage.

The city wasn't going to hire a band or a singer for the anthem, so Rapp asked Blevins and he agreed provided the mayor sang with him. Everyone in the audience sang.

"We're all going to sing the national anthem," said Rapp, who read the names of the 26 servicemen from Wood County who died in Vietnam.

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