At Arlington, 'Taps' played for Veverka, Jamestown's fallen hero

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May 18, 2006

Local soldier laid to rest in hero's grave

By Tom Davidson The Sharon Herald Thu May 18, 2006, 01:23 PM EDT

Arlington, Va. — The plain white tombstones look like an army of soldiers in parade formation.

Row upon row, they blur into each other, the names cut into them barely visible in the Wednesday morning sunshine at Arlington (Va.) National Cemetery.

There wasn’t yet a marker at gravesite 8330 in section 60, but the cars and pickups with Pennsylvania license plates that lined the road next to the grave helped to identify its occupant.

Staff Sgt. David Michael Veverka, 25, of Jamestown, is now in a place 500 times the size of his hometown. More than 300,000 are buried here and Sgt. Veverka is the 231st person killed in Operation Iraqi Freedom to be interred at Arlington.

He was given a hero’s welcome into the hallowed ground as hundreds of mourners from Jamestown made the trip to attend the funeral. They watched as he was laid to rest in the place he once watched over. They cried and hugged as Army Chaplain Maj. Gary Studniewski led the graveside rite.

The pallbearers in their dress uniforms stood stoically alongside the coffin before they folded the flag that had been draped over it, then were quiet as Maj. Gen. John Libby presented it to Carol Polley, Sgt. Veverka’s mom; another perfectly folded flag was presented to his dad, Ronald Veverka of Sharon.

They were also presented with the Bronze Star and Purple Heart that Sgt. Veverka earned while serving in Iraq as part of the Maine National Guard.

The 21-gun salute echoed across the hillside, as did the mournful notes of “Taps,” played by a lone bugler.

It was the end to a life cut short May 6 when a roadside bomb exploded in Iraq.

Sgt. Veverka died a hero, his comrades have said. He pulled a fellow soldier down into the cover of the truck they were in just before the blast, saving the man’s life.

Sgt. Veverka was eight credits shy of a bachelor’s degree in wildlife ecology at the University of Maine, Bangor. Last week the college posthumously awarded him the degree.

He joined the Army after he graduated from Jamestown High in 1999 where he was an honor student and star basketball player.

His family said he enlisted to help pay for college. In the Army, he was chosen to be a member of the elite Old Guard that stands watch over Arlington. He served there for three years before enrolling at the University of Maine and enlisting in the National Guard there. He was deployed to Iraq in January and sent to the Middle East in March.

Wednesday, in his honor, Gov. Ed Rendell ordered flags to be flown at half staff on state office buildings in Mercer County and in the Capitol Complex, Harrisburg. Flags also were lowered in Maine.

Carol Polley described her son as someone “who excelled, no matter what he did.”

“He was such a kid to be proud of,” his father said. “He was always the best.”

Sgt. Veverka’s death came the day before the anniversary of the death of the first Mercer County serviceman in Iraq. Marine Sgt. Michael A. Marzano of Greenville was killed May 7, 2005. Army Reserve Pfc. Douglas Edward Kashmer, who had ties to Sharon and Reynolds, died June 8, 2005. Army National Guard Sgt. Shawn Graham was a Grove City native who died Sept. 25, 2005. Lt. Col. Michael E. McLaughlin of East Lackawannock Township, a National Guardsman, was killed Jan. 6.

The David Veverka Memorial Fund has been established to honor him. It will fund a scholarship for a college-bound student at Jamestown High. Contributions can be made at the Jamestown branch of First National Bank of Pennsylvania.

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