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During the last decade, a local man has spent countless hours organizing road and bridge dedications in the memories of Randolph County military veterans who lost their lives or who were lost in action.
This morning, a bridge on the newly opened Corridor H segment in Randolph County will be dedicated in memory of a Kerens soldier killed in action in France during World War II.
The ceremony renaming the Kerens Bridge Lazy Run as the U.S. Army Pvt. Preston D. Vanscoy Memorial Bridge will be at 10 a.m. today at the Leading Creek Fire Department hall in Kerens.
Born April 26, 1912, in Kerens, Vanscoy was a private in the U.S. Army’s E Company, 2nd Battalion, 134th Infantry Regiment, 35th Infantry Division. Sent overseas to Europe with Gen. George Patton’s Third Army, Vanscoy engaged in intense combat against German forces in Normandy, Northern France, near the Rhineland and Ardennes-Alsace areas in Central Europe.
Vanscoy, 32, was in France when he was killed by artillery shell fragments in his arm on Sept. 30, 1944, and was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart medal. Vanscoy was interred in the Lorraine American Cemetery and Memorial in Lorraine, France.
In 2017 the West Virginia Legislature approved House Concurrent Resolution 54, sponsored by then-House of Delegates member Bill Hartman of Elkins, to rename the bridge in Vanscoy’s memory. The bridge has been finished for several years; however, because of continuing Corridor H construction between Kerens and Parsons, the structure was not opened for public traffic until June 22 of this year.
Organizer Roger Ware, who spent 28 of his 32 years in the military in the Marine Corps, said he hopes the road and bridge dedications will keep the fallen veterans’ memories alive for years to come.
Ware said he got the idea for the dedications when he was driving outside of West Virginia and saw that other states were honoring veterans with bridges and roads.
“I would be traveling and see other states with bridges named after veterans,” he said. “So I thought we should do it back home, We need to give some kudos to Bill Hamilton and Bill Hartman… who pushed all the bridges from the get-go. He and I got together years ago and came up with a plan for some bridges and some roads.
“I’m just the guy who plans the dedications, it’s never about me. All the accolades go to the veterans and that’s where the focus should be.”
Nonetheless, we salute Ware for his hard work and dedication to honoring our local heroes.