Wheeling Honors Marine killed in Vietnam to start the veteran banner program | News, sports, jobs

Photo by: Eric Ayres

The mayor of Wheeling, Denny Magruder, speaks on Tuesday during a ceremony in honor of SGT. Robert Hickman, who was killed in action in Vietnam in 1965.

WHREVING – Military banners are built throughout the Memorial Day, and on Tuesday a moving ceremony took place on Wheeling Island during a special inauguration.

Mayor Denny Magruder was accompanied by other city leaders, representatives of the American Legion Post 1 and VfW 4442 outside of the 64 Indiana St. on Wheeling Island, where city occupations for SGT. Robert Dave Hickman, who was killed almost 60 years ago in the US Marine Corps in Vietnam.

“This is a very special day for the city of Wheeling,” said Magruder. “Last November, the city and its partners started the Wheeling Military Banner program. This is not the end of the project – this is only the beginning. We hope that 500, 600 or 700 banners will be available to our veterans all over the city in the next or two years.”

Magruder described John Larch for the response to the project in Wheeling, although Larch said that the long -awaited effort in the city would not have been taken into account without the mayor's management.

The team has teamed up with the local legion and VfW, and in the next few weeks numerous banner will be hung up to appreciate veterans and military personnel in the active service from Wheeling.

“The city started to hang it up yesterday, and on the day of the commemoration, 122 banner between Warwood, Elm Grove, The Island and National Road scattered,” said Larch, noting that the Wheeling Island -Banner for SGT. Hickman is currently unique because he paid the ultimate price while serving his country. “We have 122 banners and this hero is the only one so far.”

Larch described Hickman as a “true American hero” Hickman, who was born on November 10, 1929 in Wheeling. He completed the Wheeling High School in 1947 and entered the US Army in 1953.

Two of Hickman's three surviving sons were present on Tuesday morning during the banner ceremony, and both men were very emotionally given the honor of their late father and his family.

“We appreciate it. It's a great honor,” said Rick Hickman. “I never knew my father. I was 3rd”

Rick Hickman noticed that the family lived in a house in Wabash Street on Wheeling Island when her mother was informed about her father's death. Military representatives knocked on the door to personally transmit the news.

“She said she knew the day before – she had a feeling,” said Rick Hickman.

In 1972 the family moved to the house on Indiana Street, where her mother lived for 50 years.

“She wanted to be near the church,” said Rick Hickman and noticed that her mother, Betty Ida Hickman, showed strength through a rush of the tragedy. Two of her five brothers died of brain tumors during childhood. The six-year-old brother David died in 1964 a year before her father was killed in action. One year after her father's death, 1-year-old Billy-and her father never died-1966.

“Everyone tells me that I look like my father,” said Rick Hickman. “My mother always told me that because of my similarity to my father there is part of my father while I live.”

Rick and his older brother Ron still live in the wheeling area today. The younger brother Dan lives in Hawaii. Both Ron and Dan stepped into their father's footsteps and served in the Marine Corps. Her mother died in 2022.

Since then, the house in the 64 Indiana St. has been “turned over” and converted into an airbnb that is known as Hickman House. SGT. Hickman's military banner was installed on Tuesday right on the doorstep of the house on a power supply staff.

“It will be pretty decent that Papa's banner will be up there in front of the Hickman house,” said Rick Hickman.

A few years older than Rick Hickman, Ron Hickman was old enough to have spent many memories of the time with her father before going to Vietnam.

“I remember that my father used to bring me to the NCO club (interrupted officers) and sat behind the bar,” said Ron Hickman. “I was almost 6 years old, so I have a lot of memories of my father. I feel very honored. Special (the banner) in front of our house. It is amazing. I love it. It is time that these veterans – especially those who have lost their lives – are recognized.”

Ron Hickman stated that he had to grow up quickly after his father's death.

“I was always told that I had to be the man of the house. I knew that I would go to the marine corps,” he said, noticing that he had entered the high school at the age of 18 and served in the US Marine Corps from 1978 to 84.

Smaller replica yard banners identical to the banner of the Indiana Street for SGT. Hickman was introduced to the brothers during the emotional ceremony on Tuesday.

“This is a real pleasure and honor for us to take part in this program,” said Robert Herron, manager of Wheeling City. “We are very proud of it, and we look forward to having banners throughout the community to honor our veterans.”

According to Herron, the city officials want to ensure that the program is successful and that the banner will be maintained during the time they expired.

The website can visit the website at www.troopbanners.com/wheeling that are present with a loved one with a banner – a resident of a wheeling who is currently present in the military. The website shows all banners in the city and offers a connection to an application form for a new banner.

There is a one-time fee of $ 125 for one of the colorful double-sided banner that are 2 feet of 3 feet. They are displayed every year between the Memorial Day and the Veterans Day.

There are three places of application available to the public library of Ohio County, the Howard Long Wellness Center and the Fitzsimmons Law Office in Warwood.

The military banner program has spread to communities across the country in recent years. It began in 2009 in Castle Shannon, Pennsylvania, when a 20-year-old navy was killed in Afghanistan. The program has now been expanded by more than 77,000 banner.

“We are very pleased that we make it to the wheeling,” said Larch.