Ceremony marks deeds, dedication of 109th

WILKES-BARRE – As soldiers spoke on Sunday afternoon against a backdrop of canons and crosses draped with dog tags, vivid images of patriotism, sacrifice and sorrow were resurrected from the past.

Lt. Col. Kevin M. Miller, 55th Commander of the 1st Battalion, 109th Field Artillery, recalled the infancy of the regiment, when the troops stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the nation’s founding fathers in the Revolutionary War and fought in battle at Gettysburg to preserve the Union in the Civil War.

“We remember how we endured the mud, the cold, the roar of enemy guns and the bitter pain of comrades lost on distant fields in France to preserve this freedom throughout the world. We remember how we leveled our canons in direct combat against the fierce and determined enemy whose last-ditch desperate attack throughout the length and breadth of the Ardennes Forest we stopped, and in doing so, helped save the world from tyranny and depression,” Miller said.

Then he invoked a memory that blanketed the Wyoming Valley in sorrow 59 years ago.

“We remember a foggy September morning in 1950 along a long and lonely stretch of railroad near Coshocton, Ohio. We remember the seemingly endless parade of caskets over the Market Street Bridge and the tears of families as they passed to see their loved ones in this very armory,” Miller said.

The memorial service on the front lawn of the 109th Field Artillery Armory has been conducted annually since 1951.

“It honors the memory of all soldiers of the regiment who lost their lives in service to the great Wyoming Valley, the commonwealth and this great nation. In particular, we remember today the 33 members of this battalion who died on Sept. 11, 1950,” Sgt. 1st Class John Karpovich, unit senior human resources sergeant, said prior to Miller’s remarks.

“Mobilized for the Korean War, the battalion was en route to its mobilization station at Camp Atterbury, Ind., when the troop train broke down near the village of West Lafayette, Ohio. Despite warning devices placed out by the train’s crew, a civilian passenger train, the Spirit of St. Louis, rear-ended the stalled troop train,” Karpovich said.

“The resulting carnage was the worst peacetime disaster to ever befall Pennsylvania soldiers.”

Miller then spoke of combat experienced by today’s soldiers assembled in formation on the armory lawn. “We remember that we also stood atop of besieged police stations in Baghdad, on lonely mountainsides in Afghanistan to defeat a shadowy force of evil in our world. Today, we pause to remember,” he said.

He reminded the troops that they carry the spirit, legacy and honor of their fallen comrades.

“We will never forget that spirit of those who spilled their blood and have given their all for this country, this valley, this very regiment. We know that their spirit is with us in a very real way today. I can see their determination in the eyes of every proud troop standing before us here,” he said.

Soldiers placed dog tags on white wooden crosses on the armory lawn – one for the fallen in each of the wars in which the regiment fought. Tags were also placed on a cross to honor all the dead who ever served with the regiment, on another cross to honor the 33 soldiers who died in the train wreck, and on a cross placed there “to honor the heroes and victims of the tragic attack on our homeland on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001,” Karpovich said.

Memorial wreaths presented by various veterans organizations and auxiliaries from throughout the Wyoming Valley were placed among the crosses.

Two buglers played “Taps,” and the Wyoming Valley Concert Band played for the first time in public a march written in honor of the 109th Field Artillery: “En Avant,” composed by former 109th Delta Battery member Maj. Philip Gasborro. “En Avant” is the battalion’s motto; it means “Forward” in French.

The leadership of the 109th Field Artillery moved forward on Sunday in a Change of Responsibility ceremony that preceded the memorial service.

Command Sgt. Maj. Walter J. Kierzkowski Jr. turned over command of the 109th Field Artillery to Command Sgt. Maj. Daryl A. Crawford as Kierzkowski handed over a non-commissioned officer’s sword to Crawford. While no longer part of the Army’s inventory, American sergeants wore the sword for more than 70 years during the time of the Mexican-American, Civil and Spanish-American wars.

Kierzkowski, 45, of Scranton, has been in the Pennsylvania Army National Guard for 24 years and served the last four as command sergeant major at the 109th headquarters in Wilkes-Barre.

His message to his former command was that change is constant in the Army, and “we survive our changes. You’re measured by your success in what you do in the unit. The unit is the best unit out there. We can beat anybody, and these guys know it. We survive these changes and there’s nothing we can’t overcome.”

Crawford, 38, of New Tripoli, started his career with the Guard in 1993 after serving in the U.S. Army. He has been at the Wilkes-Barre headquarters since 2008.

His message to his new command is that he’s “willing to go to war with each of them. They have �lan, they have spirit, they are proficient with their arms and they’re motivated. Those characteristics set them apart,” he said.

“My desire as their command sergeant major is to never get in the way of that, but always be there to simply augment those traits that already make them, in my view, and maybe I’m arrogant, but, better than everyone else. It’s hard to hold a candle to these soldiers. Everything I’ve ever asked them to do, they’ve done, in peacetime and in war. So that’s my message. It’s very simple,” Crawford said.

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