Thursday,
October 13, 1966
Mr. and Mrs. Hobert Friel, of Marlinton, were presented the Bronze Star Medal (posthumously) awarded to their son, Pfc. Luster C. Friel, who lost his life April 15, 1966, in the Republic of Viet Nam.
Born at Dunmore July 2, 1943, he graduated from Marlinton High School and was a promising student in Chemical Engineering at West Virginia University for two and a half years.
A member of the 101st Airborne Division, he entered the Service March 15, 1965. He took his basic training at Fort Benning, Georgia, his paratrooper training at Fort Gordon, Georgia, and went to Viet Nam last September.
The Bronze Star Medal is awarded by the President of the United States of America …
The citation is signed by W. C. Westmoreland, General Commander, U. S. Army Forces in Viet Nam, and by the Secretary of the Army, Stanley L. Resor.
The medal was presented to the Friel family at their home by Major Edwin T. Lee, U. S. Army Advisor to the West Virginia Army National Guard Headquarters in Charleston…
Wildcat
Bill Ruckman was on his usual groundhog hunt Thursday of last week with his coon dogs. At 4 p.m. one dog barked and treed, and in a few seconds, they all were there for the sweetest music a fellow ever listened to. This was in Tom Edgar’s hacking, high up on the mountain, and when he got to the tree to his great surprise instead of the usual groundhogs, there sat a wildcat.
As the gun season was closed, he carried no gun, but this was one time he wished he had slipped around the law and carried his .22. The cat was too high up to rock out and he sure was not going to leave him, so up the tree he went; when within about six feet the old cat began to spit and show his teeth as he did not like the idea of bailing out among the dogs – neither did he like the stranger so close – and just at this particular point neither cat nor man knew just what move to make. After what seemed a mightly long time, the cat looked more at the dogs than he did at his friend in the tree. With caution Ruckman cut off a small limb, sharpened the end, and while the cat was looking down at the dogs he gave him a jab in the ribs and out he went, hit the ground about fifteen feet ahead of the dogs. An exciting chase was on and they caught him at about one hundred yards and when Ruckman got to the kill the five dogs had him in hamburger. In the past three months his dogs have treed and caught on the ground 82 pigs for John Wimer, Dick McNeel, Tom Edgar and Mrs. C. W. Kennison.
He has only shot out two of this number which were up trees too large to climb and shake out, and this is pretty good for a boy standing on 70 years.
Wreck
On Sunday, a cattle truck owned by Nelson Trucking Corp, Burket, Indiana, turned over in the curve at Carl Gladwell’s in Buckeye. The truck was loaded with 91 calves from the Friday night sale being taken to Illinois; one calf was dead and another died Monday. The men in the truck were hospitalized and released Monday.
Fire Season
With the approach of autumn, the mountains display their spectacular colors. It is also the period when hunters begin to get a peculiar itch in their trigger fingers as hunting season beckons. Hunting is only one use of National Forest Land. Many people are engaged in removing timber and other wood projects from our National Forest. Other people use the land for camping, hiking, fishing and other activities.
A mountain blackened by fire is not a pretty sight, but many thousands of acres of forest land are burned over each year by carelessness. It is the duty of all people who use National Forest land to abide by our state fire laws and to report fires to the appropriate authorities.
Listed below are three of the most common violations of our fires laws:
1.Use of fire or smoke to remove a wild animal or bird from its den or place of refuge.
2.Failure to extinguish camp fires or warming fires.
3.Disposal of lighted materials, such as cigarettes.
BIRTHS
Born to Mr. and Mrs. Richard Workman, of Marlinton, a daughter, named Debra Kay.
Born to Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth Cain, of Marlinton, a son, named Richard Allen.
Born to Mr. and Mrs. James Birchfield, of Seebert, a daughter, named Kathy Ann.
Born to Mr. and Mrs. Porter Smith, of Romney, a son, named Gregory Paul. The mother is the former Barbara Harper, of Marlinton.
DEATHS
Mrs. Mary Sharp Defibaugh, 84, died in the Denmar State Hospital at Beard. Born at Frost, a daughter of the late Abraham and Martha Ellen Sharp. Burial in the Sharp Cemetery.
Mattie Mildred Stewart Tibbs, 47, of Corona, New York; born at Seebert a daughter of George Wesley Stewart, Sr., of Marlinton, and the late Bessie Jackson Stewart. Mattie was christened in the Pleasant Green Methodist Church at Seebert. Burial in the Seebert Cemetery.
Mrs. Catherine Howard, 91; a daughter of the late John Scott and Alice Gregory, she was a member of the Pleasant Green Church in Seebert, and the Rising Mount Zion Baptist Church in Marlinton. Mrs. Howard came to West Virginia in 1916 and was a resident of Watoga for the past 42 years. She was a good christian woman, and gained many friends here. To know her was to love her, and most of us will cherish the memory of her singing in the churches and in her home and her belief in God.
William Darrell Clendenen, 50, of Washington, D. C.; born at Seebert, graduated from Hillsboro High School in 1936, and joined the Navy. Burial in Arlington Cemetery.
