Jolly Green Giant statue welcomes visitors to Minnesota

Blue Earth, Minn., promises newcomers an interesting quality of life combination: “Small City, GIANT Living.”

Could that claim be related to a towering statue of the Jolly Green Giant who watches over the community of about 4,000 residents? You bet.

Over the years, there’s been a bit of a dagnabbit tug-of-war tussle between the towns of Blue Earth and Le Sueur, located about 70 miles apart, over which municipality has the right to claim the Jolly Green Giant as its own.

The Green Giant Company got its start in Le Sueur in 1903, when a local cannery opened. Hence, Le Sueur claims to be the gateway to the Minnesota River Valley and the true home of the “Jolly Green Giant” tending his garden of delicious vegetables.

Technically, Blue Earth is also located within the boundaries of the “Valley.” Its first cannery opened in 1926.

Both the Le Sueur and Blue Earth canneries, over time, became part of the Green Giant Company, which was formed in 1950. After Pillsbury acquired Green Giant in 1979, it began to consolidate canning operations. The Le Sueur factory was closed in 1995.

The canning facility in Blue Earth was spared, however. It continues to operate today, now as a unit of Seneca Foods Corporation of Marion, N.Y., but still processing on contract some Green Giant product lines.

An entrepreneur in Blue Earth seized an opportunity in the 1970s to erect a colossal, 55-foot tall fiberglass statue of the Green Giant in Blue Earth.

The statue was the idea of Paul Hedberg, owner of the local radio station (KBEW) in Blue Earth. His “Welcome Travelers” segment featured interviews with motorists who were passing through town on their westward journey to scenic landmarks such as the Black Hills and Yellowstone National Park.

At the end of each interview, Hedberg presented his guests with cans of peas and corn from Blue Earth’s Green Giant canning plant.

Hedberg had no trouble raising $50,000 in private funds to have the Green Giant statue built as an investment in tourism for the town. Could the town get it built before the opening of Interstate 90?.

I-90 is reportedly the “longest road in America,” stretching 3,081 miles from Boston to Seattle. Its east and west paving crews met just outside of Blue Earth, and a big ceremony was held on Sept. 17, 1978.

To mark the occasion, the connecting roadway slab was made of gold-tinted concrete – a “Golden Stripe” – as a nod to the Golden Spike that joined the First Transcontinental Railroad in 1869.

Miss America Susan Perkins Botsford participated in the I-90 dedication, while the new statue of the Jolly Green Giant observed, suspended from a large crane. “With straps under his armpits, the Green Giant offered his approving smile,” Hedberg said. “It was a spectacular piece of publicity for Blue Earth.”

In 1979, the 4-ton statue was given a permanent home in a Blue Earth city park, mounted on an 8-foot pedestal.

Heidi Van Heel of the MinnPost news service observed: “The Giant’s feet are 6-feet long; that’s the equivalent of size 78 shoes.”

Every Christmas season Santa still visits the Giant, lifted up in a bucket truck to put a long red scarf around his neck to keep the Giant warm for the winter. The Blue Earth Area Chamber of Commerce has video of the ritual on its Facebook page.

The Blue Earth Fire Department also gives the Giant a bath at least once a year. Only in America!

‘Jolly Green Giant’s Valley’ exists in Minnesota

Within the fertile Minnesota River Basin lies “The Valley of the Jolly Green Giant.” Just outside the community of Le Sueur, Minn., is a large sign that welcomes visitors to “Green Giant” country.

Le Sueur is where the Green Giant Company took root. Local farmers and investors came together in 1903 to build the Minnesota Valley Canning Company factory to process cans of white cream-style corn.

(The town took its name from French explorer and fur trader Pierre-Charles Le Sueur, who discovered the Minnesota territory.)

Ward Cosgrove, a son of one of the original cannery founders, assumed a leadership role with the business in 1914. He created the Le Sueur brand of “very young small sweet peas.”

Cosgrove realized it took a lot of those little peas to fill a can. He went to Europe in 1925 and gathered jumbo-sized “Prince of Wales peas” that were both “tender and sweet.” The seeds thrived in the fields around Le Sueur. Cosgrove called them “Green Giant Great Big Tender Peas.”

The “Jolly Green Giant” mascot emerged in 1935. Leo Burnett, a young advertising executive, created this enormous, solid green fellow, wearing a sunny smile…and a skimpy toga of leaves.

Author Don Osell said Burnett created the entire “concept of the Valley of the Jolly Green Giant...a mythical, Shangri-La place where the soil was richer, the rains softer and gentler, where the sun shone warmly on the fields...and where the vegetables grew like no place else in the world! The caretaker who overlooked this idyllic place was a jolly, friendly giant.”

The cannery in Le Sueur officially became the Green Giant Company in 1950, so this year marks a 70-year milestone of “Good Things from the Garden…Ho, ho, ho.” The booming, deep bass voice came from Elmer “Len” Dresslar Jr.

Perhaps the most innovative advertising pairing of all time was the campfire scene from 1963 with Tennessee Ernie Ford singing to children about the Jolly Green Giant, as the giant basked in the light of a rising full moon.

This novelty mini-album was titled “When Pea-Pickers Get Together.” Ford earned the nickname as “the Ol’ Pea-Picker” due to his catchphrase, “Bless your pea-pickin’ heart!”

"In 1972, a mysterious new visitor arrived to the Green Giant’s Valley. Much like the beloved harvest icon, this new character was green and dressed in leaves,” wrote Heather Taylor for AdvertisingWeek magazine.

“He was pint-sized and easily fit into the palm of the Jolly Green Giant,” she said. “He was the Little Green Sprout, who introduced kids to the healthy goodness of veggies.”

Things began to change in 1979 after the Green Giant Company was merged into The Pillsbury Company. The entire community of Le Sueur (about 4,000 people) mourned when – dagnabbit all to heck – Pillsbury shuttered the original canning plant in 1995.

Pillsbury was acquired in 2001 by General Mills. In 2015, General Mills sold the Green Giant and Le Sueur brands to B&G Foods of Parsippany, N.J. (B&G owns more than 50 food brands including Ortega and Cream of Wheat.)

Through all the “dizzying change,” Osell commented, “the Green Giant brand has survived and prospered. The moral: Companies are transient; brands and products – if they’re built on a stable platform and nurtured – can ride out the changes and prosper.”

In 1999, Advertising Age magazine, listed its top-10 advertising icons of the 20th century. The Green Giant came in third (behind the Marlboro Man and Ronald McDonald).

Rounding out the top 10, respectively, were Betty Crocker, the Energizer Bunny, the Pillsbury Doughboy, Aunt Jemima, the Michelin Man, Tony the Tiger and Elsie the cow.

Carteret heraldry springs forth from the sea

Right whales are emblazoned on the official seal of Carteret County, N.C. Known as “The Armorial Bearings of Carteret County,” the dominant colors on the graphic image are red, black, gold, silver and white.

According to Carteret County documents: The silver diamonds on the shield are representative of the Coat of Arms of the original Sir George Carteret family. He was one of the eight Lords Proprietors of Carolina, so named by King Charles II in 1668.

Carteret County was named for John Lord Carteret, grandson of Sir George Carteret. Formed in 1722, Carteret Country was formally chartered in 1739.

Carteret County’s seal contains black tridents that are representative of Neptune, Roman god of the sea.

The yale is a mythical heraldic beast atop the helmet. On the Carteret seal, this creature has a body of an antelope with curved horns and a lion’s tale. It is clutching the shell of a sea scallop, a symbol of courage.

The black right whales appear quite jovial and are there as “supporters,” appropriate for an oceanside community like Carteret County. (The “supporters” come from the practice of a Knight’s aides dressing in various animal costumes to attract challenges at tournaments.)

The idea for a Carteret County Coat of Arms was brought before the Board of Commissioners in 1976 by two civic-minded women from Beaufort – Emily Louise Loftin and Thelma Ellen Pake Simpson. Emily Loftin was a retired librarian and school teacher, and Thelma Simpson was a historian and book author.

The request was officially made by John Kenneth Newsome, Chair of the Board of Commissioners at the time, and submitted to the Officer in Waiting of the College of Arms in London, England.

The process involves approval by the Earl Marshal and the eventual signing of the “letters patent” by the King of Arms. (Serving as Earl Marshal at the time was British Army Maj. Gen. Miles Francis Stapleton Fitzalan-Howard, 17th Duke of Norfolk.)

The unveiling of the Carteret County Coat of Arms occurred in 1977, and the original artwork hangs in the Board of Commissioners Room in the county courthouse in Beaufort.

The North American right whale became so named by whalers in the 18th century because it was deemed the “right” whale to hunt – easy to spot from shore, rather slow moving and so buoyant that the whale floated to the surface when killed, providing a bounty of oil, meat and bone.

“The right whales were hunted to the brink of extinction,” reported Abigail Dillen of Earthjustice, a San Francisco-based nonprofit organization specializing in environmental law.

“Scientists estimate that only 300 to 400 of these whales remain,” Dillen said. “Although listed as endangered in 1973, the North Atlantic population of right whales has made little progress toward recovery.”

Earthjustice observed the 15-year anniversary of National Endangered Species Day on May 15, 2020, by publishing its listing of the 15 species of wildlife that the organization is especially “fighting for” this year through its various projects and cases.

The North American right whale is among them. (Other sea creatures included on the list of top priorities include orcas, wild salmon and bowhead whales.)

If right whales were to become extinct, it would rock the entire dagnabbit heritage and culture of Carteret County. The whole foundation of county government might topple and come crumbling down.

Who wants an official seal that looks like a fallen Humpty Dumpty?

The right whale “supporters” depicted on the county seal deserve the support of the county’s elected officials. “Saving the right whale” is the right thing to do.

Church heritage involves ‘lifting’ spirits as well as debts

Edward Kimball had no formal religious training, yet the man drew saintly acclaim for his contribution to the advancement of America’s evangelical movement in the 19th century.

In 1855, Kimball took an interest in a 17-year-old newcomer to the young men’s Bible study class he taught at a church in Boston. Spiritually, the new pupil was completely lost in the wilderness.

Brother Kimball, who was in his early 30s, reached out to Dwight L. Moody, and they connected. Moody later shared: “I can still feel the power of that man’s hand on my shoulder. I had not felt that I had a soul till then.”

Moody’s faith blossomed from that day forward. “He was much more than an evangelist whose preaching led innumerable souls to Christ,” said The Rev. Dr. Lyle Dorsett, an academic theologian and Moody biographer. “D. L. Moody became one of the most effective ‘disciple makers’ of church history.”

Credit Kimball for starting the ball rolling, giving Moody the confidence to become a “spiritual lifter,” raising the bar of evangelism and igniting the hearts of other pioneers who followed him to the pulpit through the ages.

They included dynamic preachers like F. B. Meyer, J. Wilbur Chapman, Billy Sunday, Mordecai Ham and Billy Graham. (That’s a real, religious rock star heaven hall of fame roster.)

 Edward Kimball

 Although Kimball had a successful career selling an assortment of commodities, he quit his job…and skipped joyfully down an entrepreneurial path in 1879 – aiding churches nationwide as a “debt lifter.”

Someone coined a term to label Kimball’s new role – “finangelist.”

In this capacity, Kimball served as a consultant to get churches out of the red and into black ink territory – helping them become debt-free.

“He made people “glad to give,” one Midwestern newspaper reported. “Kimball gets more money out of a congregation than they are naturally willing to give.”

Appealing to the church members, Kimball would cite the Scriptures. He tried to model the traits of Paul the Apostle, who was a primary writer of the second letter to the Corinthians.

Kimball paraphrased: “Give from your heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. You will be enriched in every way, so that you can be generous on every occasion, and your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.”

At the time of Kimball’s death in 1901, he had assisted more than 600 churches in the United States…and “lifted” more than $15 million in church debts.

Hence, Kimball will be forever remembered as the supreme “finangelist” as well as the catalyst who sparked a miraculous “evangelical” chain of events.

Kimball had his own followers who carried the torch for “modern church finance.” Dr. Albert F. McGarrah of the McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago, authored several books on the subject.

In 1916, he “instructed” local ministers to recruit “competent women to participate in raising funds, management of finances and all other business of the church, not simply in their societies.”

Churchgoers will be more inclined to give if they believe they “are getting their money’s worth” from the quality of the preacher’s sermons, McGarrah said.

Furthermore, if the church is “attractive to children,” their parents will be more likely to support it, he said.

“The people want fellowship opportunities,” McGarrah said. “Bring in forms of entertainment…and good, free dinners.”

Amen to that.

And then there was the church bulletin notice: “Thursday night – Potluck supper. Prayer and medication to follow.”

Reaching out is the American way

Celebrate 50 years of good advice from vocalist Diana Ross, whose first solo recording – “Reach Out and Touch (Somebody’s Hand)” – debuted in 1970.

When Diana sang: “Make this world a better place…” she could have been singing praise to Edward Kimball.

As a Bible studies teacher in Boston in 1855, Kimball reached out and touched the shoulder of a troubled young man named Dwight Lyman Moody. That action became the catalyst for an evangelical chain reaction of Biblical proportions.

Kimball, who was working as a carpet merchant in Boston, had volunteered to lead a young men’s study group on Sunday mornings at the local Congregational church.

One of the lads who attended was Dwight, 17. He had recently moved from western Massachusetts to Boston, in order to work for his uncles, Samuel and Lemuel Holton. They owned a gentlemen’s boot and shoe store. Among the terms of employment was a requirement that Dwight attend Sunday worship services.

Dwight was teased as a “greenhorn from the country” who struggled to find the Bible passages they were studying. Kimball reprimanded the “scoffers” and vowed to help elevate Dwight from spiritual darkness to see the light.

One Saturday in April 1855, Kimball decided to drop in at the shoe store and speak to Dwight. Kimball later wrote about the encounter.

“I found him in the back, wrapping up shoes in paper and putting them on shelves. I went up to him and put my hand on his shoulder, and made my plea; I simply told Dwight of Christ’s love for him and the love Christ wanted in return.”

The morning star rose in Dwight’s heart, reported biographer Kevin Belmonte. Dwight remembered that moment as well, saying that “the sun was shining brighter than ever…the birds were singing for my benefit…the old elms waved their branches for joy…all nature was at peace.”

This was the beginning of a spiritual legacy that led D. L. Moody from the shoe store to the pulpit, as he embarked on a path of greatness as an evangelist. Moody held to the thought that “faith makes all things possible.”

D. L. Moody

On one of his many trips to preach in Great Britain, Moody was welcomed by Baptist evangelist Frederick Brotherton Meyer in York, North Yorkshire, England.

They developed a friendship, and in 1891, Meyer accepted an invitation to preach in Moody’s hometown of Northfield, Mass.

One of the attendees at that service was John Wilbur Chapman, a Presbyterian minister from Indiana. Meyer commented: “If you are not willing to give up everything for Christ, are you willing to be made willing?”

Chapman said: “That remark changed my whole ministry; it seemed like a new star in the sky of my life.” He took evangelism to a whole new level, and recruited a big-league baseball player named Billy Sunday to be his second-in-command on the revival circuit.

When it was Sunday’s turn to ascend to America’s evangelistic first fiddler, he anointed Mordecai Ham as the heir apparent.

Ham made his mark by reaching out and touching a 15-year-old farm boy named Billy Frank Graham…seemingly completing a powerful, motivational, spiritual journey that began with Edward Kimball’s visit to a shoe store.

Hence, we could declare “the end.” Shall we box this story away for storage on the shelf of “blessed memories?”

If we do, we run the risk of encountering the wrath from preachers like Moody, Meyer, Chapman, Sunday, Ham and Graham.

For, you see, Edward Kimball was not a “fade away” kind of guy.

Prayer can produce miracles every so often

Vernon W. Patterson offered a prayer during an outdoor gathering of a Christian men’s club in May 1934, hosted on the dairy farm of Frank Graham, near Charlotte, N.C.

Patterson, a paper salesman, prayed that “out of Charlotte the Lord would raise up someone to preach the Gospel to the ends of the Earth.”

Perhaps that’s what led an up-and-coming Baptist evangelist – Mordecai Ham – to be invited by the men’s group to come later in 1934 and conduct a series of revival meetings in Charlotte for the purpose of seeking out and anointing that “holy person.”

Preacher Ham was recommended personally by Billy Sunday, who left professional baseball in 1891 to become a Presbyterian minister and preach the word.

Ham came to the makeshift “tabernacle” with a sawdust floor in Charlotte, where he preached six days a week, morning and night, for 11 weeks.

While Frank Graham and his wife, Morrow Coffey Graham, attended religiously, their eldest son, Billy Frank, age 15, refused to attend. He said that the whole dagnabbit affair “sounded like a religious circus.”

 William Frank Graham Sr.

Billy Frank Graham as a teenager. (Photos compliments of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.)

Yet, Billy Frank and some friends mellowed, and went in the fifth week of the tent revival…just to check things out.

“Dr. Ham was loud,” Billy Frank recalled. “I was spellbound. In some indefinable way, he was getting through to me. I was hearing another voice….”

Billy Frank and his best friend Grady Wilson went back the next night, and then the next.

“For a week, the two boys quailed under the gimlet gaze of Mordecai, who seemed to be searching out their most secret sins,” TIME magazine once wrote. Neither Billy nor Grady could sing a lick, but “they joined the choir, so they could stand behind Mordecai, but there was no hiding place.”

After another week of attending meetings, Billy Frank and Grady both went to the altar.

Ham later said: “I told the boys, after they came forward, to sit in the preachers’ section. Billy Frank sat there for two months. The Lord seemed to be directing everything, and what took place…didn’t seem to have an earthly explanation!”

The Rev. Billy Frank Graham, of course, went on to build an enormous worldwide following, augmenting his personal appearances with state-of-the-art media technology, to touch hundreds of millions of people.

Grady Wilson and T. W. Wilson (Grady’s older brother) also entered the ministry. The brothers and Billy were reunited within the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.

In his book, “Just As I Am,” Billy Graham said the Wilson boys “were the Heaven-sent ones who propped me up….”

“From the beginning of our friendship, Grady was my God-given balance wheel,” Billy wrote. “His easy-going nature and sense of humor saved the day many times.”

“I leaned on T. W. in practical ways perhaps more than any other person,” Billy said. Biographer William Martin wrote: “For more than 30 years, no one would spend more time at Billy’s side than T. W.”

When Rev. Graham died in 2018 at age 99, the responsibility for overseeing the Graham family business interests fell to Franklin Graham, now 67, one of five children born to Billy Graham and Ruth McCue Bell Graham.

The Graham family enterprises are committed to the ongoing “preaching of the Gospel to the ends of the Earth.”

They do so in memory of a fellow named Edward Kimball (1823-1901).

In 1855, Kimball taught a Sunday school class for adolescent boys in Boston.

His discipleship started a “spiritual legacy” that snowballed throughout the generations into a gigantic chain of events that still resonates today in houses of worship.

Billy Sunday’s sports legacy contains spiritual message

Missing your sports? Here’s a story dredged up from deep within the vault of sports’ “ecstasy and agony.” You aren’t likely to see anything about baseball player Billy Sunday on “The Sports Writers” television show on ESPN. He goes way-way back.

Billy Sunday was born in Ames, Iowa, in 1862, but never got to meet his father. William Sunday went off to fight in the Civil War; he caught pneumonia in a Union army camp and died about a month after Billy was born.

An article by Wendy Knickerbocker of the Society for American Baseball Research noted that Billy Sunday was a dual-sport star growing up, excelling in track and baseball.

He was discovered as a teenager on a local baseball diamond in Marshalltown, Iowa, by Adrian “Cap” Anson, player-manager of the Chicago White Stockings of the National League. (Anson is enshrined in Major League Baseball’s Hall of Fame.) Anson signed Sunday in 1893 as a reserve outfielder.

As a rookie, “Sunday was an instant fan favorite,” Knickerbocker wrote. “The crowds enjoyed watching him sprint after fly balls in the outfield, but they cheered even louder for his daring steals and legged-out hits.”

Sunday played eight seasons in the big leagues, from 1883-90. His career batting average was a fair-to-middling .248.

Author William Ellis said Sunday was “the speediest base runner and most daring base stealer of the entire baseball fraternity.”

Thom Karmik of Baseball History Daily reported that baseball’s Jake “Eagle Eye” Beckley once told the press in 1915: “You can have your Ty Cobb (one of the best baseball players of all time)…I’ll take Billy Sunday for my ball club right now, and I said the same thing back in the nineties.”

Beckley and Cobb are also Hall of Famers…and Sunday could have been, had he played longer.

(Sunday was the first player ever to circle the bases in 14 seconds, and the modern-day record speed for an inside-the-park-homerun is 13.85 seconds.)

People only “thought” Billy Sunday left the game in 1891. Beckley said in his 1915 interview: “Billy’s running and sliding every day in that pulpit, just as he did back in the old days.” Amen, brother.

Billy Sunday chose a life of Christian service in 1891, and he emerged as “the Baseball Evangelist,” Knickerbocker wrote. “In the days before radio, Billy Sunday was the most successful evangelist America had ever known.”

Sunday’s religious career blossomed in 1893 when John Wilbur Chapman, a popular Presbyterian evangelist, selected fellow Presbyterian Billy Sunday to assist with a series of revivals throughout the Midwest.

Later, when Chapman accepted a pastorate in Philadelphia, Sunday went out on his own in 1896. He had but one dagnabbit sermon at the time, so it was important he move about from place to place.

Sunday directed many of his messages to men. He once said: “Many think a Christian has to be a sort of dish-rag…wishy-washy, sissified sort of a galoot who lets everybody make a doormat out of him.”

“Let me tell you, the manliest man is the man who will acknowledge Jesus Christ.”

“I don’t use much highfalutin language. I learned a long time ago to put the cookies and jam on the lowest shelf,” Sunday said.

“Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than going to a garage makes you an automobile.”

Billy Sunday wrote more sermons…and made about 20,000 presentations before he died in 1935 at age 72.

Sunday had an influence on Mordecai Ham, a Baptist evangelist. Ham, in turn, had an influence on a young man who identified himself at a 1934 church meeting in Charlotte, N.C., as Billy Frank Graham.

Outfielder Billy Sunday

America vows to never forget its ‘soldier dogs’

North Carolinians are proud to have multiple military war dog memorials in the Tar Heel State, which has a history of boasting about its military friendliness. For the complete listing of monument sites, access the website of the Vietnam Dog Handler Association.

The organization cites a unique war dog memorial in King, N.C., a community of about 7,000 people in southern Stokes County, located about 15 miles north of Winston-Salem. This memorial was constructed in 2013 as an Eagle Scout project by Cody McBride, who was a member of Troop 415 in King.

The monument was dedicated on Veterans Day in 2013, and at the ceremony, Cody commented: “Dogs have loyalty, dedication, unconditional love and a heart – something that makes them an invaluable asset to our fighting forces. As a nation we owe our dogs a tremendous debt of gratitude. Their selfless service, loyalty and sacrifices to our country must never be forgotten.”

Cody recited a short poem written in 2008 by Joe Ferrar, a Vietnam veteran, titled “The Soldier Dog.”

I was trained to use my eyes to

Watch and protect you from harm,

My ears to alert you of impending

Danger like an alarm.

My keen sense of smell to detect

An enemy close at bay.

Yes, I was a soldier who gave my life

So you could fight another day.

So, remember me as time goes by

This soldier dog so true.

For I had only one life to give

And I gave that life to you.

Cody McBride graduated in 2016 from West Stokes High School in King and was an athletic standout in swimming and track, earning all-state credentials in the pole vault event.

He is a graduate of the Forsyth Technical Community College Electrical Linemen Academy, the only nationally certified lineman training class in North Carolina and considered to be among the leading programs in the southern states.

There’s also a war dog monument at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in Jacksonville, N.C. It features a life-size bronze sculpture of Flex, a Belgian Malinois. He is shown in a sitting position, wearing his full deployment kit. His ears are perked, appearing ready to spring into action. (Don’t you know it, dagnabbit, Flex was a Marine through-and-through.

The statue honors all military dogs that serve and protect. It is located near the Corporal David M. Sonka Multi-Purpose Canine Facility, which houses the military war dog kennels.

Cpl. Sonka, who was Flex’s handler, was killed in Afghanistan on May 4, 2013, along with Staff Sgt. Eric D. Christian while conducting Marine combat operations. Flex died in the attack as well while attempting to save the two Marines.

The monument also contains the names of four other K9 handlers from the Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command who perished while serving in Afghanistan.

Master Sculptor Lena Toritch of Salt Lake City, Utah, was commissioned to create the monument.

At the dedication ceremony on Sept. 7, 2015, Cpl. Sonka’s widow, Torey Sonka, expressed her appreciation.

“I know he’s honored to have this,” she told Dan Lamothe of the Marine Corps Times, an independent weekly newspaper. “He was such a passionate person about the K9 world, and this was really his dream and his calling in life.”

Sonka’s father was also in the audience and told WITN-TV, based in Greenville, that his son had wanted to be a Marine since age 12 and enlisted on his 18th birthday.

“Never forget those who have fallen,” said Kevin Sonka. “Always remember what freedom is about. Who paid the price for it? Any of these guys standing here.”