Crowd swells to remember veterans during annual wreath-laying event WREATHS OF HONOR
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
He’s won a Bronze Star, a Purple Heart, and four Super Bowl rings. His life story has been the subject of a book, a TV movie, and a play. But as Rocky Bleier stood on a windswept hillside in Cecil, looking down at an austere white grave marker, it was the life of Andrew Hawes he was thinking of.
“He had a good, long life,” said Mr. Bleier, noting that Mr. Hawes, a staff sergeant in World War II, had died in 2013 at the age of 94. “Thank you for your service,” he murmured, placing an evergreen wreath with a red bow before the marker.
Mr. Bleier was one of an estimated 3,000-plus people laying wreaths as part of Saturday’s annual “Wreaths Across America” event at the National Cemetery of the Alleghenies. The 12-yearold annual commemoration took place at veterans cemeteries nationwide, including four national cemeteries in Pennsylvania.
“It gives you a personal sense of who they were, with all their hopes and dreams — and the families they left behind, “said Mr. Bleier, a Vietnam War veteran who lost part of a foot to a grenade but went on to football greatness with the Steelers.
“It’s overwhelming to see all these supporters,” said cemetery director Ronald Hestdalen. “It’s a sign of appreciation for veterans and their sacrifices.”
Mr. Hestdalen said that since 2009, when he arrived at the cemetery, attendance had grown from between 300 and 400 people to crowds roughly 10 times that size. And this year, the cemetery had a wreath for each of its more than 10,100 grave sites. Merely unloading the wreaths, which had been shipped from Maine in three 18wheelers, had taken two hours, he said.
This year’s costs were underwritten in part by the Steelers, who contributed $20,000 to the event. In a statement, team president Art Rooney II said the gift was intended to honor “a sacrifice that will always be remembered with gratitude and reverence.” Mr. Bleier was joined by fellow retired Steelers Franco Harris, Craig Wolfley and John Banaszak.