Tim Derr, Amber Borysewicz, Cory Linker, Dennis Boor stand at attention with their rifles by the symbolic watchfire.
Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader
Glen Lyon groups hold Walk of Warriors
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Ready to begin the 1-mile walk that started at St. Nicholas Ukrainian Church in Glen Lyon are, from left: Sabrina Wildoner, American Legion Post Commander Amber Borysewicz, American Legion Auxiliary President Barbara Meyers, Heidi Jarecki and VFW Post Commander Cory Linker. With Borysewicz and Linker as commanders, this is the first time in history that the two local posts are led by women, Borysewicz said.
Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader
At the front of the walk, 14-year-old Braden Meyers and 10-year-old Aubrey Griffiths-Linker carry the POW/MIA flag while, right behind them, 7-year-old Mason Mikulski carries an American flag. About 30 people took part in the recent 1-mile walk from a church on East Main Street, Glen Lyon, to the American Legion Post Home, which shares space with the VFW.
Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader
Symbols of the missing include an Army helmet, an empty chair, a Bible representing faith in a higher power, and a candle to represent hope. Slices of lemon on the plate represent the bitterness of the situation and salt represents the tears of family members.
Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader
About 30 people took part in the 1-mile Walk of Warrior on Sept. 20 in Glen Lyon, showing that Prisoners of War and the Missing in Action are not forgotten.
Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader
Walk of Warriors participant Diane Rodrigues wears a bracelet with the name of a missing soldier. She doesn’t know the person whose name is on the bracelet but wants to show he is not forgotten.
Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader
Wearing black shirts and carrying American flags, about 30 people walked down Main Street in Glen Lyon on a recent Friday afternoon, then rounded a corner and trudged up a hill.
When they reached the American Legion/Veterans of Foreign Wars building on Newport Street, the orange flames of a watchfire greeted them.
And a deeply symbolic ceremony began, with Officer of the Day John Wildes explaining that “as long as even one soldier remains a Prisoner of War or Missing in Action,” his or her comrades will light a watch fire to guide that person home.
“Their families deserve that closure of having them come home,” American Legion Post Commander Amber Borysewicz said earlier, explaining that might mean a living soldier physically returns home, or perhaps a remains of a fallen soldier are identified and returned. Or perhaps a family takes comfort by thinking of their loved one’s spirit drawing near.
According to the Department of Defense, more than 80,000 American service personnel are missing from previous conflicts and 38,000 are estimated to be recoverable.
The tradition of a watch fire hearkens back to the Revolutionary War, walk organizer and American Legion Auxiliary secretary Faith Kropiewnicki said, when soldiers would light fires to guide comrades who had become separated from the rest.
As Wildes explained to the gathering, a table had been set up in honor of the missing. Its white tablecloth represented the purity of their answer to the country’s call to arms; a red rose symbolized love of their families, a Bible represented faith in a higher power, slices of lemon on a plate represented the bitterness of separation, salt represented the tears of the family and a candle represented hope for a loved one’s return.
The Walk of Warriors once had been an annual tradition, American Legion Auxiliary President Barbara Meyers said. It hadn’t been held for the past few years, but she helped Kropiewnicki bring it back this year.
Co-sponsored by VFW Post 8353, American Legion Post 539, American Legion Post 971, Auxiliary Unit 539, and Sons of the American Legion Unit 539, the walk included veterans, family members, friends and a few children.
Meyers’ 14-year-old nephew, Braden Meyers, and 10-year-old Aubrey Griffiths-Linker led the procession, carrying a POW/MIA flag between them. Proudly carrying an American flag right behind them was Mason Mikulski, who had turned 7 just a few days earlier.
The marchers included American Legion Post Commander Amber Borysewicz, and Cory Linker, commander of Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 8353 and, Borysewicz said, this is the first time the two veterans groups from Glen Lyon are both led by women.
As she walked along the 1-mile route, Linker said she had grown up on a farm in Minnesota and longed for the excitement of seeing the world. Joining the Army took her to Paris and Egypt — and to such hot spots as Somalia. But she didn’t worry about her safety, she said. “I guess I felt invincible.”
After she married her husband, who also was in the military, and they had two children, they moved their young family to her husband’s native Northeastern Pennsylvania.
Borysewicz grew up here and returned to Northeastern Pennsylvania with a medical discharge after suffering a serious injury to her knee in the Middle East. Despite any pain she might have been feeling during the recent Walk of Warriors she insisted on pulling a wagon filled with water bottles for the walkers and refused any offer of help.
“She’s stubborn,” her cousin Sabrina Wildoner said as they strode along.