The threat of rain, even thunderstorms for late morning to early afternoon in Front Royal, was replaced by sporadic sprinkles throughout Monday’s Memorial Day Commemoration of America’s servicemen and women who have given their lives in the struggle to preserve liberty and freedom for our nation and its allies around the world.

At the bagpipes, lower right, Jim Lundt calls the gathering crowd in, some umbrellas in tow, for the noon beginning of the Memorial Day ceremony of remembrance of the fallen. – Royal Examiner Still Photos Roger Bianchini, Video Mark Williams

Those raindrops falling on the cheeks of attendees may have provided a service in hiding tears forming in reaction to former U.S. Navy SEAL Lt. Commander Sean Glass’s stirringly emotional keynote address. While Lt. Commander Glass survived tours of duty in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Eastern Africa, all he served with did not.

Or those raindrops could have been in service on stray cheeks later at Malcolm Barr Sr.’s reading of the published recollections of the wife, Sarah Cerri Cowherd, of fallen soldier Leonard Cowherd of Culpeper, a graduate not only of West Point but also nearby Wakefield Country Day School. Second Lieutenant Cowherd was killed in May of 2004 in Karbala, Iraq, leaving behind his wife of less than a year.

Her published recollection of receiving various belongings of her late husbands from the front provided a painful portrait, as had Lt. Commander Glass’s earlier remarks, of the void left behind in the lives of the living in the wake of the loss of those we gather on Memorial Day to pay homage to.

Memorial Day Co-Chairmen Rob McDougall and ‘Skip’ Rogers also alluded to the more solemn nature of this federal holiday, tied as it is to the ultimate sacrifice of one’s life in defense of others.

Keynote speaker Lt. Commander Glass also challenged us all not to become complacent with the freedoms that endure at home because of the sacrifices of the nation’s fallen. Glass urged, even challenged us to live lives worthy of those sacrifices, rather than fall into thoughtless self-centeredness in our personal interactions with loved ones and others we encounter in our day-to-day lives.

It was an emotional recollection and even a challenge by Lt. Commander Sean Glass to us all to be worthy of the sacrifice of the fallen soldiers to preserve the American ideals of freedom and opportunity for all citizens. Below, Malcolm Barr Sr. read the published account of widow Sarah Cerri Cowherd of dealing with the 2004 death of her husband of less than a year, Leonard Cowherd of Culpeper in Iraq.

Co-Chairman Robert McDougall, U.S. Marine Reserves, launched the ceremony at noon, Monday, May 29th, at its traditional location on the historic Warren County Courthouse grounds. McDougall acknowledged town and county public officials present, among others.

Accompanying McDougall in presenting this community’s once-again annual remembrance of its and the nation’s fallen heroes were:
Color Guard from Randolph-Macon Academy comprised of Cadets Jay Haney, Cole Solinger, Kamila Yusupova, and Mateo Wohnig, with R-MA Chief Master Sgt. Ken Evans present;

Flanked by Co-Chair Rob McDougall and keynote speaker former Navy Lt. Commander Sean Glass, the R-MA color guard pose here post-event. The R-MA cadets presented the colors to begin Memorial Day ceremonies and helped with the presentation of the wreath of remembrance. Below, sisters Grace, Lainey, and Ella Clark led the singing of the national anthem.

sisters Grace, Lainey, and Ella Clark, who beautifully led the singing of the National Anthem;  event Co-Chairman ‘Skip’ Rogers, U.S. Army retired; keynote speaker, former U.S. Navy SEAL Lt. Commander Sean Glass; retired Navy Chaplain Father Michael Duesterhaus, currently of St. John the Baptist Catholic Church;

At ease, guys – left to right, Memorial Day Commemoration Co-Chairs ‘Skip’ Rogers and Rob McDougall. Below, keynote speaker, former Navy SEAL Lt. Commander Sean Glass, mingles following the conclusion of Monday’s ceremony. And further below, Father Michael Duesterhaus left, a retired Navy Chaplain currently at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church, preparing to give the opening invocation.

retired A.P. reporter, federal public information officer, post-WW II British vet, and Royal Examiner contributor Malcolm Barr Sr., who was given a nod by McDougall for resurrecting the local Memorial Day ceremony 11 years ago, out of which the now-accompanying Dogs of War and Service dogs weekend event sprang (see related story); and bagpiper and Marine veteran Jim Lundt.

Sean Glass and Malcolm Barr Sr. lead the wreath-laying ceremony near the conclusion of Monday’s Memorial Day remembrance of those soldiers who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our nation. Bless them all.

Watch the Royal Examiner’s exclusive video of Front Royal and Warren County’s Memorial Day Commemoration Ceremony, it will be time well spent, we promise.

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Deloris K. “Dee” Cooper, 86, of Browntown, Virginia, passed away on Thursday, May 25, 2023, at Lynn Care Center in Front Royal.

A graveside service will be held on Friday, June 2, at 10:00 am at Panorama Memorial Gardens with Pastor Jeff Fletcher and Pastor P.G. Coverstone officiating.

Dee was born October 3, 1936, in Luray, Virginia, the daughter of the late Raymond James and Evelyn Lillard Knott.

Surviving are two sons, Chip Cooper and Barbara and R.J. Cooper and wife Toni, all of Browntown; one daughter, Bambie Compher of Front Royal; two grandsons, Shawn Cooper, and wife Lindsay and Kyle Compher and wife Brittany; and five great-grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by her parents; an infant son; a son-in-law, Larry Compher; and her brother, Kennith Knott.

Pallbearers will be Chip Cooper, R.J. Cooper, Shawn Cooper, Kyle Compher, Skip Vermillion and Jamie Knott.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made in Dee’s memory to Cool Spring Church of God, 3705 Gooney Manor Loop, Bentonville, Virginia 22610.

Following the graveside service, all are welcome to join the family for a time of food and fellowship at the Front Royal Elks Club on Guard Hill Road.

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David and Adair Keller started their married life together in 1977 at Camp Lejeune, a military training base on the Atlantic Coast in Jacksonville, North Carolina. David was a Marine Corps field artillery officer then, and they lived together on the base for about six months.

But that sojourn had an outsize impact on their lives.

Forty years later, in January 2018, Adair was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia. She died six months later at age 68. There’s a chance her illness was caused by toxic chemicals that seeped into the water military families at the base drank, cooked with, and washed with for decades.

When the PACT Act passed last August, David asked a neighbor who worked at a personal injury law firm in Greenville, South Carolina, if he thought he might have a case. Now Keller is filing a
wrongful death claim against the federal government under a section of that measure that allows veterans, their family members, and others who spent at least 30 days at Camp Lejeune between Aug. 1, 1953, and the end of 1987 to seek damages against the government for harm caused by exposure to the toxic water.

The Camp Lejeune Justice Act didn’t attract the spotlight like the aspects of PACT that deal with the harms soldiers experienced from burn pit fumes overseas. But for veterans who served at this North Carolina post, it is the realization of a decades-long effort to hold the government accountable.

As cases begin to proceed through the legal system, some veterans’ advocates worry that families who have already suffered from toxic exposure may get shortchanged by a process that’s supposed to provide them with a measure of closure and financial relief. They support limiting lawyers’ fees, some of which may exceed half of a veteran’s award.

The government estimates as many as a million people were exposed to Camp Lejeune’s contaminated water during the 34-year period covered by the law. Personal injury lawyers have taken notice. In recent months, TV ads trying to drum up business have been impossible to ignore: “If you or a loved one were stationed at Camp Lejeune between 1953 and 1987 and developed cancer, call now. You may be entitled to significant compensation.”

During the year that ended in March, TV ads soliciting Camp Lejeune claims reached an estimated $123 million, according to X Ante, a company that tracks mass tort litigation advertising. Camp Lejeune TV ads currently rank third among the top targets for mass tort claims since 2012, behind only asbestos and mesothelioma ($619 million) and Roundup weed killer ($132 million).

“The attorneys have calculated out that they stand to make a pot of money,” said Autrey James, chairman of the American Legion’s Veterans Affairs & Rehabilitation Commission. “We need Congress to put caps on how much these attorneys can charge.”

For Keller, a 73-year-old former workers’ compensation lawyer, it’s a matter of accountability. Because of his experience, he came out of retirement last year to represent Camp Lejeune victims. He is now working part-time at the Greenville law firm he spoke with initially, and that now represents his late wife. It currently has roughly 65 Camp Lejeune cases.

Under the law, veterans must first file an administrative claim with the Judge Advocate General of the Navy’s Tort Claims Unit. If, after six months, the Navy hasn’t settled the claim, or if it denies the claim, veterans can file suit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina.

So far, approximately 23,000 claims have been filed with the Navy, none of which have been fully adjudicated, said Patricia Babb, a spokesperson for the Judge Advocate General’s office.

This legal remedy has been a long time coming. In the early 1980s, the Marine Corps learned that three of Camp Lejeune’s water distribution systems were contaminated with industrial chemicals that had seeped into the water from leaking underground storage tanks, industrial spills, and waste disposal sites. The Corps shut them down in the mid-1980s, and the area was declared a hazardous waste site in 1989 under the Environmental Protection Agency’s Superfund law.

Federal studies later showed that toxic chemicals in the water — benzene, vinyl chloride, and TCE, among others — were present at levels that could have caused a range of cancers and other serious illnesses. In 2012, after an intense lobbying campaign by veterans, Congress passed a law that gave veterans and their families free medical care if they got sick with any of more than a dozen diseases associated with the toxic water.

But thousands of veterans who felt the Navy had stonewalled and delayed addressing the contamination filed civil suits seeking damages. In 2019, the federal government denied all the claims, citing state and federal statutes that shielded the government.

The Camp Lejeune Justice Act opened a two-year window for veterans and their families to pursue cases against the federal government.

And Liz Hartman, the commander of American Legion Post 539 in nearby New Bern, now sees new reason for alarm. Some veterans are signing contingency fee contracts in which they agree to pay lawyers representing them 40% to 60% of any money they receive, Hartman said.

“Many of these people are elderly and very vulnerable, and they’re being preyed upon,” she said.

Personal injury lawyers generally work on a contingency basis. If they win the case, they receive a portion of the award, often one-third. If they lose, they get nothing. The firm Keller is working
with charges 40% for Camp Lejeune cases.

If anything, fees for the Camp Lejeune cases should be lower than usual, not higher, said Matt Webb, senior vice president for legal reform policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Institute for Legal Reform.

“The PACT Act changed the burden of proof and made it so much easier for claimants to win their cases,” he said. Under the law, the evidence must show that the exposure was as likely as not to have caused the harm, rather than having to prove that there’s a greater than 50% chance that the claim is true, called a “preponderance” standard.

In addition, the law requires that any award a veteran receives be offset by any amount they received in a disability payment or health benefit related to their condition. This could substantially reduce the amount of their award.

Veterans “could end up owing money,” Webb said. “I’m not saying it’s going to happen, but particularly if a lawyer is taking a huge chunk in fees, it could happen.”

Trial lawyers say a marginally lower burden of proof doesn’t mean the cases will be easy to win.

It’s a new law with no case law or judicial opinions to refer to, said Mike Cox, a Livonia, Michigan, lawyer and former Marine infantryman who was stationed at Camp Lejeune in the early 1980s. He’s now representing more than 200 veterans in such cases.

Many of the diseases and conditions people developed are not among those the government acknowledges may be linked to the contaminated water, Cox said. Even for veterans whose illnesses are recognized by the government, lawyers will have to show where they were based, what kind of cancer they have, and their level of toxic exposure, he said. His fee for representing these veterans is 33% of any award they receive.

In addition to proving they were stationed at Camp Lejeune during the years covered by the law, “the claimant also must demonstrate to the Navy he/she is suffering from an injury that is related to the exposure to (or ingestion of) contaminated water,” said Babb, the Judge Advocate General spokesperson.

With stories circulating of attorney contingency fees that could potentially eat up more than half of veterans’ awards, some lawmakers have stepped in.

Under a bill proposed by Reps. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) and Mark Takano (D-Calif.), Camp Lejeune attorney fees would be capped at 20% in cases settled as administrative claims and 33.3% in those filed as civil lawsuits in court.

Another House proposal, introduced by Reps. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Mike Bost (R-Ill.) is identical to one introduced in the Senate by Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), which would cap fees at 12% and 17% under similar circumstances.

According to David Keller, based on his conversations with other lawyers, “nobody is objecting to something that is reasonable,” such as caps at 20% and 33%.

Many of Keller’s clients are older men who are really sick and probably won’t live long, he said. Some tell him they’re reluctant to sue the government.

“What I say to them is, ‘When we signed the contract with Uncle Sam, we gave Uncle Sam a blank check for our arms, our legs, and maybe even our lives. But we didn’t sign a blank check to get a serious disease from contaminated water, either them or their spouses or children.”

By Michelle Andrews | KFF Health News

KFF Health News , formerly known as Kaiser Health News (KHN), is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF — the independent source for health policy research, polling, and journalism.

Virginia Mercury is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Virginia Mercury maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sarah Vogelsong for questions: info@virginiamercury.com. Follow Virginia Mercury on Facebook and Twitter.

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Vietnam Memorial on Memorial Day. Deliberately setting aside the controversies of the war, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial honors the men and women who served when their Nation called upon them. The designer, Maya Lin, felt that politics had eclipsed the veterans, their service, and their lives. She kept the design elegantly simple to allow everyone to respond and remember.

Beginning with the Revolutionary War, almost 1.4 million Americans have died in our nation’s wars, including about 667,000 killed in combat. We remember, honor, and mourn those gallant souls every year on Memorial Day – May 29 this year. Those Americans who have served in or near war zones carry their memories throughout the year. It should not be just a once-a-year observance for everyone else.

The country’s more recent conflicts, starting with Vietnam, have seen a blurring of the battle lines, where American service personnel have teamed up with local forces to fight a common enemy. For those who have worked hand-in-hand with local forces – South Vietnamese, Iraqis, or Afghans – it is hard to forget those local troops who died for the common cause. Although our Memorial Day is for a commemoration of our war dead, I think it would also be appropriate to honor those foreign partners on this special day.

For most of my tour in Vietnam, I lived and worked beside South Vietnamese soldiers (ARVNs), mostly Roman Catholics or members of the Cao Dai Church. As human beings, they had the same hopes and aspirations as most Americans. I trusted them with my life, and I believe most of them felt the same. I can’t think of America’s fallen without thinking of them. Almost 300,000 ARVNs died in the war, and we left many more of them to a horrible fate. They deserve remembrance and respect. I know that many Americans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan feel the same about their foreign partners. When you form trusting bonds in wartime, it is hard to break them.

Although our bonds with the people of Ukraine are at a different level, where we are mostly non-combat partners providing moral support and weaponry from the sidelines, I have that same feeling about those valiant humans. The Ukrainians are fighting and dying in a war that serves the vital national interests of the United States and NATO, as well as our allies on the other side of the planet. Ukraine is the proverbial point of the spear that protects freedom and democracy from the despotic regimes in Russia, China, and Iran.

If we allow Russia to prevail, it will give great encouragement to the autocrats, quite possibly leading to a spread of hostilities to Taiwan and any number of Asian, African, and South American nations in the sights of Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping.

Although I rarely find issues upon which I totally agree with U.S. Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, Ukraine is one such issue – an exceedingly important one. The senator realizes that it is essential to America’s strategic interests that Ukraine prevail in Putin’s genocidal war. I agree with his view that the U.S. needs to increase and expedite the supply of war materiel to Ukraine. Sen. Risch has observed that “the Ukrainians are fighting today for what our founding fathers fought for in 1776.”

Incidentally, that observation was made when the senator recently recalled his meeting in Ukraine with a former Green Beret from Boise, Nick Maimer, who had been volunteering to train Ukrainian civilians on how to defend their country. Maimer was reported to have been killed by Russian artillery fire earlier this month. God rest his soul. He joins thousands of Ukrainians who have died in the fight.

Ukraine has reportedly suffered 124,500-131,000 total casualties, including 15,500-17,500 killed in action and 109,000-113,500 wounded. Because their fight is largely our fight, it would be most appropriate to remember and mourn them, along with our war dead and our foreign partners who died in supporting American troops. On Memorial Day, I’ll be remembering my 58,220 brothers and sisters who died serving their country in Vietnam. I’ll also be thinking of Lieutenants Dinh and Tanh, Captain Thanh and interpreter Tom, who were with us all the way until we abandoned them to their ugly fate in 1975.

By Jim Jones

Jim Jones served as Idaho attorney general for eight years (1983-1991) and as a justice of the Idaho Supreme Court for 12 years (2005-2017). He also served in the Vietnam War. His weekly columns are collected at JJCommonTater.com.

Virginia Mercury is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Virginia Mercury maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sarah Vogelsong for questions: info@virginiamercury.com. Follow Virginia Mercury on Facebook and Twitter.

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In a remarkable feat that resonates with his lifelong dedication and passion for his work, Robert A. Clark, a Senior Extension Agent with a focus on Agriculture and Natural Resources, has recently received the 2023 Alumni Award for Extension Excellence from the Virginia Tech Alumni Association.

Bobby Clark

Better known as Bobby, Clark expressed his delight and gratitude for this well-deserved recognition. “My desire to become an Extension agent started when I was in high school. My Extension career spans two states — North Carolina and Virginia — and 35 years,” he said, reflecting on his journey that has taken him through three and a half decades of service. He added, “Throughout my career, I have always enjoyed helping both individuals and communities succeed through the knowledge shared as an Extension agent.”

Clark’s contribution to the field extends to addressing an array of economic and environmental issues. His tireless work in the northern Shenandoah Valley and beyond has encompassed a series of initiatives like improving slug management in no-till corn and soybeans, helping farmers increase profitability while practicing better environmental stewardship, addressing large animal mortality disposal issues, and devising solutions to poultry litter management issues. The success and impact of these initiatives speak volumes about Clark’s commitment to his stakeholders and his community.

In her supportive remarks, Lori Miller, Senior Staff Officer and Environmental Engineer for USDA, lauded Clark’s unique approach and dedication, saying, “Bobby’s initiative and ability to think outside the box has greatly improved our nation’s ability to respond to animal health emergencies during our times of greatest need; his leadership, professionalism, and practicality have had a major impact on the protection of American agriculture.”

As one of the most respected figures in his field, Clark’s body of work has earned him several awards, including Program Excellence Awards at the district and state levels, the National Association of County Agricultural Agents Distinguished Service Award, and the Virginia Association of Agricultural Extension Agents Distinguished Service Award. This most recent accolade from Virginia Tech further underscores his immense value to his field and his profound influence on American agriculture.

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