Long gone, but not forgotten’ City officials honor WWI vet, hometown hero

Long gone, but not forgotten’ City officials honor WWI vet, hometown hero
Arthur Perkins is long gone, but not forgotten – and Mike Coston’s annual Memorial Day routine honors a man he has no other connection to but a commitment to remembering Perkins’ sacrifice. The Kilgore Chamber of Commerce president still remembers the day several years ago that he got the phone call from out-of-state. Jonesborough, Tenn. resident Allen Jackson who was hoping to locate the grave of U.S. Army Corp. Perkins, who had lived in Jonesborough before giving his life in World War I.
“It was important to the people that called me – I could tell that in their heart, they’d like to have their hometown hero remembered,” said Coston.
He went to the grave site in Danville Cemetery, and took a picture of the tombstone, sending it back to Jackson.
That’s how it started.
Now every year, he visits the grave site. This year he took Mayor Ronnie Spradlin, who helped commemorate Perkins’ sacrifice.
The pair sent a photo of their visit back to Jackson.
In an accompanying e-mail, Spradlin told Jackson he was touched to learn of Jackson’s continuing efforts to honor Mr. Perkins.
“I wish all who have sacrificed so much for our country enjoyed the same respect and appreciation that you show for Mr. Perkins,” Spradlin wrote.
“Kilgore, just last week, buried a 2002 high school graduate who died as a Marine fighting in the war in Afghanistan; so the sacrifice made by so many has been made especially personal and touching as I write this note,” he said.
The son of a Kilgore native mother and a Civil War veteran, U.S. Army Corp. Arthur Blaine Perkins’ picture on his tombstone in Grave 395 at Kilgore’s Danville Cemetery shows a handsome, serious young man, immaculate in his uniform, forever young.
Perkins was just 21 when he died on Nov. 8, 1918 from fatal wounds received in the brutal Somme offensive, just a month before the armistice was signed, declaring the end of the Great War.
In Jonesborough, Tenn., Allen Jackson was researching graves to make sure hometown veterans from earlier wars were remembered on Veterans Day and Memorial Day when he came across a record for the Gregg County native who had lived in Jonesborough prior to his service in World War 1.
Jackson, a U.S. Air Force veteran retired after 26 years service, said such efforts are important.
“A lot of these men were actually just forgotten. This is a way to give back to those who are heroes to me – they’re the ones who gave everything, and they should be remembered,” Jackson said in a phone interview Friday.
“If it wasn’t for those men, and now ladies, we wouldn’t have the freedom we have – it’s not the politicians, it’s not religion, it’s not the newspapers – it’s them,” he said.
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Mayor Ronnie Spradlin, speaking to the Lions Club Thursday, invited the community to attend Monday’s City of Kilgore Memorial Day commemoration at Harris Street Park at 9 a.m.
Spradlin gave a historic perspective of American military history, chronicling the wars since the Civil War, as Memorial Day was first established after the Civil War.
He recalled the recent funeral of Sgt. Kenneth B. May Jr., the Kilgore Marine killed in Afghanistan on May 11, the streets lined with somber mourners paying their respects as May’s hearse passed by.
“When you see a face, it brings it all home,” he said.
Spradlin said it was interesting to note that two-thirds of the Patriot Guard motorcyclists who volunteered to accompany May’s coffin as he was laid to rest were veterans of the Vietnam War era, the generation to whom the American public was “the least respectful” to, but they were still there to show respect for the current generation of American fighting men and women.
Patriotism was front and center at Thursday’s meeting of the Kilgore Lions Club.
The honor guard unit of the Longview Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 4002 visited, and veteran Guy W. Denney played taps on his trumpet.
“I’m proud to have served our country in the U.S. Navy … and proud that we’re called upon to pay tribute to our fallen comrades,” said veteran Waymon Bryant.
“Freedom is not free … Each time I see the flag go by, it does something to my heart. I’ve lost loved ones in the wars,” Bryant said, adding that he sees no distinction between so-called “police action” operations and battles officially designated “wars.”
“When the bullets are flying and soldiers are dying, friend, that’s a war,” he said.