Cub Scouts ID vets' markers at Scottdale cemeteries

Three Cub Scouts have identified 152 veterans’ grave markers that need to be replaced at two Scottdale cemeteries.

It’s a community service project designed to honor those who served their country, as well as the Confederate States of America.

Nathaniel King and Alex Schwenger, both of Scottdale, and Gavin Rummel of Mt. Pleasant, all 11, walked through the cemeteries on a snowy day last month to find which markers — which have a hole to hold a U.S. flag — need to be replaced, said Ken King. King is Nathaniel’s father and den leader of Cub Scout Pack 160 of Everson.

“They got a sense of accomplishment,” King said.

They walked through the rows of graves to find the vets’ burial sites for their community service project. Community service work is required for boys to earn the Arrow of Light — the Cub Scouts’ highest honor, King said. They also removed damaged flags at the graves.

“We wanted to do something for the community,” King said. “Nobody had really taken a look at the graves for some time.”

The boys, assisted by their fathers, found graves of soldiers who served as far back as the Civil War and the Spanish-American War of 1898. A Confederate soldier is buried at St. John The Baptist Cemetery, King said.

With the community service project completed, the Cub Scouts were awarded their Arrow of Light during ceremonies Saturday at the VFW Post in Scottdale, King said. The VFW also will give the Cub Scouts certificates of appreciation, King said.

The boys will be joining Boy Scout Troop 160, also sponsored by Everson Borough.

The service project King proposed to the boys “seemed like a good fit for me,” he said.

King is a retired Army colonel who served tours of duty in the 1998 Kosovo War involving ethnic Serbs and Albanians in Yugoslavia, as well as Iraq and Afghanistan. He received the Purple Heart as a result of being wounded in Iraq in 2003.

Armed with the names of the veterans whose markers are damaged, King intends to give the information to the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 7781 in Scottdale. The VFW will notify the state Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, which King said will replace the damaged markers.

Keith Medley, quartermaster for the Scottdale VFW, could not be reached for comment Friday.

Joan Nissley, a spokeswoman for the military and veterans affairs, could not be reached for comment Friday.

King said he is hoping to get the new veterans markers in time to be placed at the graves for Memorial Day.