Master Chief

Patrick Dellen retired from the Navy on March 1.The 1985 Butler High School graduate joined the Navy in August 1985. He attended Quarter Master "A" School in Orlando, Fla., and passed the screening to attend Basic Underwater Demolition School BUDS. From Orlando, he went to Coronado, Calif., where he was assigned to BUDS Class 138 and became a Navy SEAL.His Naval Special Warfare career began with his assignment to SEAL Team 3 at Naval Amphibious Base Coronado. He deployed four times in the next five years to the Philippines as the diving rep, communicator and engineering rep and visited numerous countries, including Korea, Thailand, Japan and Malaysia. During 1987, he completed the Naval Special Warfare Sniper School. He become petty officer second class before leaving SEAL Team Three.In June 1992, he was assigned to Naval Special Warfare Development Group, Virginia Beach, Va., where he served for the next 13Z\x years and rose in the enlisted ranks from E-5 to E-9 master chief petty officer.His qualifications include diving supervisor, rappel master, Army rigger, static line and free fall jump master. He has made several deployments to countries, which are still classified, and has received multiple awards for these deployments.In January 2006, he went to the Naval Special Warfare Advanced Training Command as division officer for its sniper course. While in charge of the school, he graduated more than 280 SEAL snipers, who were deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan. Dellen is credited with transforming the course into one of the best sniper courses in the world.His decorations include Naval Special Warfare Breast Insignia, Naval Parachutist, Bronze Star with "V," Bronze Star, two Defense Meritorious Service Medals, two Navy Commendations Medals, two Joint Achievement Medals, three Navy Achievement Medals, a Combat Action ribbon, a Presidential Unit Citation Ribbon, two NATO ribbons, and Expert Pistol and Rifle ribbons.He and his wife, Catherine, are the parents of a daughter and they make their home in Virginia Beach, where he works for Linxx Global Solutions.He is the son of Chester and Aysha Dellen of Butler.———Pvt. 2

Ryan Miano of West Sunbury recently graduated from basic training at Fort Sill, Okla., and currently is stationed in Fort Eustis, Va., for training as an Apache helicopter mechanic.He is the son of Ron and Missy Miano of West Sunbury and grandson of Sam and Doris Grossman of West Sunbury, Roger and Petty Hall of Slippery Rock, and Ron Miano Sr. of Carson, Calif.He is a 2009 alumnus of Moniteau High School and Butler Vocational-Technical School.———On Monday, which is Patriots Day, 97 American heroes from the Vietnam War era will be honored posthumously during the annual In Memory Day Ceremony at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.Among those being honored are

Thomas Anthony Capoccioni of Sarver, who died Oct. 16, 2005. Also being honored are

David James Pistachio of Ellwood City, who died Sept. 16, 2007, and

William S. Pierce of Russelton, who died Sept. 11, 2008.In Memory Day was created to pay tribute to the men and women who died prematurely from noncombat injuries and emotional suffering directly caused by their service in the Vietnam War, but who are not eligible to have their names inscribed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.The Department of Defense parameters allow only the names of service members who died of wounds suffered in combat zones to be added to the memorial.