ST. MARYS, Ohio (WLIO) - St. Marys held a dedication ceremony in honor of three local heroes. Sergeant Ronnie Blair, Sergeant Herbert C. Linville and Staff Sergeant Charles V. Kettler will now have their names memorialized on state and federal highways.
State Route 66 will be renamed in honor of Sergeant Blair, U.S. 33 will be renamed in honor of Staff Sergeant Kettler, and State Route 29 will be renamed in honor of Sergeant Linville. The three soldiers each gave the ultimate sacrifice and went above and beyond the call of duty by giving their lives to save the lives of their fellow soldiers.
"There's so many soldiers from St Mary's who've made the ultimate sacrifice, many of them been highly decorated, wounded in action, and we thought that we knew of four soldiers who were the fell into that category, that were killed in action, decorated with silver star. One of them has the VFW named after him, and we didn't want the other three to be forgotten," said Kim Reiher, network administrator for the city of St. Marys.
The three soldiers each gave the ultimate sacrifice and went above and beyond the call of duty by giving their lives to save the lives of their fellow soldiers.
"When we come into the army, it's all voluntary, and it's a profession, not a job. So you're expected to do what you're trained to do. But when sacrifices are made, such as these three soldiers the ultimate sacrifice, you know, it tells us that they went above and beyond, not just to help themselves, but to help the unit, to help the country," said Command Sgt. Major Eugene Mirador of the 27th Infantry Regiment in the United States Army.
"I feel great about it. For people like Sergeant Blair finally getting the recognition that's deserved. When you're in the moment of it, you don't really think about it, you know, you just you're reacting. Your training is kicking in. So you see somebody that needs help. In his case, you know, there are people pinned down an open field with multiple casualties. All he thought to do was get out there, grab the casualties, bring them back, establish some type of fire in order to survive the situation and give them their best chance of survival," said First Sgt. Joel Carson of the 27th Infantry Regiment in the United States Army.
After the ceremony, friends and family of the fallen soldiers were invited to take a bus to the site of each sign for photographs.
