Gold Star Mothers honored during Trafford Memorial Day program
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Trafford resident Christine Fike marked Memorial Day by laying roses at the base of a hometown monument that is dedicated to Gold Star mothers.
Fike is one of those mothers who has lost a child killed while serving in the U.S. armed forces. Her 38-year-old son, Sgt. First Class Robert J. Fike, lost his life to a suicide bomber in 2010, while he was on a tour of duty with the Army National Guard in Zabul, Afghanistan.
“It’s an organization that no mother wants to be a part of,” said Trafford American Legion Ladies Auxiliary officer Rose Schopp, who helped to place the roses during a Memorial Day program Monday at Trafford Veterans Memorial Park.
Once mothers have found themselves in that group, Schopp said, they can at least form mutual bonds of fellowship and support while striving to “perpetuate the memories of those whose lives were sacrificed in wars.”
Fike’s husband, James, said the Trafford park’s monument to Gold Star mothers is well-deserved.
“It’s the Gold Star mothers who hold everything together,” he said.
Participating in Memorial Day observances is important to Christine Fike.
“It makes us feel that (her son) is not forgotten,” she said. “We want his memory to live on.”
James Fike is a Trafford Legion officer who retired from the Army National Guard after serving with a First Air Cavalry unit in Vietnam. He underlined for those in attendance the importance of the ultimate sacrifice made by his son and other service members.
“These are young men who were our sons, our neighbors, our friends,” he said. “When their country called, they said, ‘If not me, then who?’
“They kissed their loved ones goodbye, went across the Trafford Bridge and became not only our sons, but America’s sons.”
The program at the park followed a parade in town, both including patriotic numbers by the Penn-Trafford High School Marching Band.
A new participant in this year’s parade was a marching unit representing nonprofit The Well Corporation of Pennsylvania. CEO Dave Lersch, a Desert Storm veteran, said the effort to provide for veterans’ spiritual and physical needs began in 2018, as a ministry of the Christian Life Church in Trafford, where he is a deacon.
Crisis intervention is among its services. “We have an information center to guide (veterans) if they need help,” Lersch said. “Helping people out, that’s what we’re about.”
Jeannette Honor Guard pays respects
In nearby Jeannette, the community’s Combined Veterans Honor Guard marked Memorial Day by visiting the graves of veterans at area cemeteries in between programs at City Hall and Jeannette Memorial Park.
Councilman Chuck Highlands recalled his time serving stateside with the Army Signal Corps during the early 1960s, including during the tense days of the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Honoring service members who didn’t return home is “something we can’t let go,” he said. “We have to continue it.”