Former resident, WWII veteran thanks community
ELKINS — A World War II Navy veteran who returned to Elkins Saturday for a bridge dedication in his son’s honor said he wanted to thank the community for the support.
Edward S. Hutchison, of Wilmington, North Carolina, and other family members and friends attended a ceremony to officially rename the 11th Street bridge in Elkins as the U.S. Navy BT2 Mark Edward Hutchison Memorial Bridge. The young sailor was killed Oct. 30, 1990, during a boiler-room rupture on the USS Iwo Jima.
Mark Hutchison was the youngest of five children of Edward Hutchison and the late Helen Ruth Purkey Hutchison, and the family lived in Elkins for many years. He followed in his father’s footsteps by joining the U.S. Navy and serving his country.
Edward Hutchison, 93, said it was nice to return to Randolph County for the dedication as well as a picnic lunch in Elkins City Park to meet up with relatives and reconnect with old friends.
“It was wonderful,” Hutchison said about Saturday’s ceremony. “I appreciate all that people have done here in Elkins for my son, and me too.”
The WWII veteran served in the U.S. Navy from 1943 to 1945 and was an operator of LCVP landing craft, helping troops land on the beaches of Normandy on D-Day, June 6, 1944.
He said he was an operator/mechanic, and said he was part of a small crew and was luck to not lose any close friends that day. However, he remembered how huge the operation was, and how many sacrificed their lives.
“We lost a lot of guys that we took in,” he said.
Hutchison also recalled serving throughout the Philippine Islands as well as taking U.S. troops into Japan after the Japanese surrendered.
He was born in Pennsylvania, and his family moved to Randolph County to work in the coal mines. He attended Tygarts Valley High School, and said he received his high school diploma after he came home from the war.
Hutchison said some details from that time period are hard for him to remember now, but he did say how much he missed his family while he was overseas.
His parents were Edward S. and Zillah Roach Hutchison, and he said his mother played piano at community square dances in Elkins City Park and other places around the area.
“I dearly loved it, and I square danced every chance I got,” he said. “That’s where I met my wife; she was a good one.”
Hutchison worked about 26 years for the Elkins limestone company, he said, and also served as an Elkins City Council member during the 1970s. He was a founding member of the local chapter of the Izaak Walton League and also was involved in many conservation initiatives in West Virginia.
He said he and his wife later moved to North Carolina after their children moved down South, but he was happy to come back for a visit this weekend.