photo by: Derek Redd

The Good Shepherd Nursing Home residents pictured were among those honored Monday night with Military Appreciation banners through the City of Wheeling. Front row, from left, are William Bray, James Rager, John Anderson, James Bosworth, Larry Edgell and John Kerr. Back row, from left, are John “Jack” Blazier, George Byrd, William Rogerson, Robert McColloch, Robert Neidhardt, Jerry Zuk, and William Hannig.

WHEELING — Fourteen residents of Good Shepherd Nursing Home, all of whom served in the United States Armed Forces during their lives, were honored Monday night for that service by both the nursing home and the City of Wheeling.

Those 14 will have banners in their honor hung around the city as part of Wheeling’s Military Banner program, joining the more than 300 that already are being displayed throughout Wheeling.

The banners were purchased by Good Shepherd in the veterans’ honor. Good Shepherd Administrator Morgan Murphy said it was an honor for her organization to pay tribute to the residents that gave so much of themselves during their military service.

“Country before comfort, duty before ease and honor before self,” Murphy said in her welcome Monday to the veterans and their families at the nursing home’s chapel. “To our veterans here today, our residents, our family and our friends, we say, from the bottom of our hearts, thank you.”

The 14 veterans honored Monday were:

– John Anderson, U.S. Navy, who served on the USS North Carolina and in Panama during World War II;

– John “Jack” Blazier, U.S. Army, who served in Korea just after the Korean War;

– James Bosworth, U.S. Army National Guard during peacetime;

– William Bray, U.S. Air Force, who served during peacetime in Lubbock, Texas;

– George Byrd, U.S. Air Force, who was stationed at Keebler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Mississippi during the Vietnam War;

– Robert Clegg, U.S. Army, who was stationed in Guam, Japan, Italy and the United States during World War II;

– Larry Edgell, U.S. Navy, who served on an aircraft carrier and at the Pentagon on Washington D.C. during the Vietnam War;

– William Hannig, U.S. Army, who served in peacetime in Germany and Spain;

– John Kerr, U.S. Army, who served during the Vietnam War and flew the DMZ in Korea;

– Robert McColloch, U.S. Army, who served in Korea during the Korean War;

– Dr. George Naum, U.S. Army, who served in peacetime and was stationed at Fort Knox and in Germany;

– Robert Neidhart, U.S. Army, who served in France during the Korean War;

– James Rager, U.S. Army, who served in Germany during the Cold War;

– John Reddy, U.S. Army, who served during the Vietnam War as a chemist at Edgewood Arsenal;

– William Rogerson, U.S. Navy, who served in the Pacific Ocean on the USS Enterprise during the Vietnam War;

– Jerry Zuk, U.S. Navy, who served during the end of the Korean War and in the Persian Gulf and other areas off the coast of Africa and Saudi Arabia during peacetime.

Those veterans in attendance Monday night received a replica of their banner that will hang in the city from Wheeling Mayor Denny Magruder. Magruder said it was easy to see how proud those veterans were of their service to their country.

“When you went to shake their hand, they grabbed your hand with such a great grasp,” he said. “You can tell they were so grateful that we haven’t forgotten them.

“It was almost like rolling back the clock to the day they were there (in service),” Magruder added. “To feel that patriotism, you look at these guys … we get the definition of patriotism from our veterans.”

Anderson, 98, led the audience in the Pledge of Allegiance to start the ceremony. He was extremely appreciative of what Good Shepherd and the city did for him and his fellow veterans at the home.

“It’s very gratifying,” he said. “And I can tell you that some of it was quite unexpected, the amount of time they spent with me and the tributes they gave.”