photo by: Eric Ayres

Wheeling Mayor Denny Magruder speaks during a ceremony Thursday in South Wheeling to dedicate a banner for PFC John Habak, who was killed in action on March 1, 1945, while fighting on the island of Iwo Jima during World War II.

WHEELING — A special dedication took place in South Wheeling on Thursday when the Military Banner Program in Wheeling honored PFC John Habak, a U.S. Marine who was killed in action on the Pacific island of Iwo Jima during World War II.

City officials, family members and local veterans groups gathered for the ceremony at the corner of Jacob and 44th streets in South Wheeling where Habak lived and worked at a grocery store before going off to fight overseas.

Habak, a graduate of Wheeling High School, was killed in the line of duty at the age of 22. He never got a chance to return home to start a family of his own.

While fighting on Iwo Jima, Habak served in 2nd Battalion, 28th Marine Regiment, 5th Marine Division.

“When you talk about the Marine Corps, what’s always depicted is the flag raising on Mount Suribachi,” said Chuck Ryan, vice commander of Wheeling Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 4442, straining to hold back emotion.

“That is the unit that raised that flag on Mount Suribachi. He was not one of those six men who did that, but that was his unit.”

The five-week Battle of Iwo Jima was a landmark event during World War II. In the end, U.S. Marine and Navy personnel captured the Japanese island and its two airfields. The iconic flag raising photo, taken on Feb. 23, 1945 by Joseph Rosenthal of the Associated Press, won a Pulitzer Prize. It became one of the best-known photographs of World War II and was replicated as the U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington, Virginia, Ryan noted.

Fighting continued on the island in the days that followed the flag raising. Three of the six men pictured in the iconic photograph were also killed in action — two of them on the same day that Habak was killed.

Family members noted that Habak’s body was never returned to the United States. They said the placement of the banner in his honor on the corner where he once lived was “a way for him to have made it home” 80 years after he gave his life for his country.

“I never got to meet him,” said Mary Blair, Habak’s niece. “He died when my mother was just young.”

During Thursday’s ceremony, Blair was wearing a ring that Habak had given her mother.

“My mother passed in February,” Blair said. “My dad served in the Navy, and I saw that military banners were being hung all around Wheeling. I reached out and I wanted to get a banner hung in Warwood for my dad.”

Blair said her father, Russell West, served in the U.S. Navy during World War II. He grew up in and, after the war returned home to Warwood, where his banner was placed.

“I wanted to do something for Uncle John. He meant so much to my mother,” Blair said, who was happy to see the banner erected right in the area of South Wheeling that Habak called home.

“He grew up there, this is where their grocery store was,” Blair noted, giving thanks to those who make the program possible in Wheeling. “I think it’s great. A lot of people reached out to me asking how to go about doing it.”

Although the Military Banner Program in Wheeling has only been in operation for a year now, a total of around 235 banners have already been placed in locations throughout the city.

“This banner program has been an amazing thing,” Mayor Denny Magruder said. “It’s reinvigorated, I think, our recognition of patriotism and paying homage to our heroes.”

The program salutes all veterans and active duty military personnel, and the program represents a collaboration between the city of Wheeling, members of the local VFW and American Legion posts and volunteers.

Lead volunteer John Larch, who spearheaded the project in Wheeling, recognized C.J. Rouscher of the Wheeling Operations Department during Thursday’s ceremony. The Operations Department has placed each banner since the program’s inception.

“From day one, they’ve made a commitment to placing a pole exactly where the family wants it, when possible,” Larch said.

Father Jason Charron of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Ukrainian Catholic Church was scheduled to appear during Thursday’s ceremony but was unable to attend due to a flight cancellation. He forwarded a prayer to be read during the ceremony, however.

Members of the Moundsville Veterans Honor Guard took part in the ceremony, presenting a folded flag to the family in honor of Habak, giving a three-volley gun salute and performing taps.

“Today is a very special one,” Wheeling City Manager Robert Herron said of Thursday’s banner dedication, noting that he happened to know Habak’s nephew, John Habak, who shares the same name. “He worked for us for a while — a great guy. So I have a little bit of a connection with the family, and I think that the fact that this is here at the corner of where he grew up makes it even more special.”

Habak had two brothers and four sisters. The family held a funeral service for him in 1945 on Easter Sunday at St. Mary’s Ukrainian Church.

“John Habak was serving his country when he gave his all in the line of duty,” Ryan said. “It’s such an honor to be here to dedicate this banner at this place. When they talk about ‘the Greatest Generation’ — they were, without a doubt. Without them, we would not be here today. We owe them a debt that we can never repay. The only way we can possibly repay that debt is to honor men like this.”

Ryan noted that a famous quote reflecting on the sacrifice of the Battle of Iwo Jima is inscribed on the base of the U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial — “uncommon valor was a common virtue.” He urged people — when they see military banners placed in the city or in other communities in the area and across the country — take time to think about the things those patriots actually did.

“They gave us the opportunity to be right here today,” Ryan said. “We should never take that for granted. We must never forget.”