Flag, pole honor fallen classmates
BUTLER TWP — Dennis Coyle and Robert Glasgow, who died in the Vietnam War, will be memorialized for years to come with a new flagpole at Butler High School.
The flagpole is outside the Harriger Administration Building on the school campus. About 100 people attended its dedication Saturday morning.
Coyle, a private in the U.S. Marine Corps, was in Vietnam for less than a month when he was killed in a mortar attack on March 6, 1969. Glasgow, a specialist in the U.S. Army, was killed when the helicopter he was riding in landed on a mine on July 24, 1969.
Both men were 1968 Butler graduates.
Mike Strutt, Butler School District superintendent, said the idea for the new flagpole came from David Slater, who drives a bus for Valley Lines and would stop at the school.
One day, Slater told Strutt that the former flagpole outside the building looked “pathetic.”
“And he was right,” Strutt said.
Strutt looked into the cost and learned that a new pole could be expensive. Slater later came to a school board meeting and compelled the board to get a new flagpole. District solicitor Tom King took charge of fundraising for the project.
Looking back on graduates of that year, Eva Robinson, who represented the Class of 1968, said that some went to college, some got married, some went to work and some went to Vietnam.
“Two of us never came back,” Robinson said.
During school reunions every five years, classmates would remember Glasgow and Coyle, but then they would get on with their lives.Slippery Rock District Judge Tim Shaffer, a former state senator who served in Vietnam, said that he did not personally know Glasgow and Coyle.“However, I do remember what Vietnam was like in 1968,” Shaffer said, describing it as hot, dirty and dangerous.As a fellow Vietnam veteran, Shaffer said that it was great to say thank you to two veterans who died in combat.U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, R-3rd, of Butler presented a flag that was flown over the U.S. Capitol. Bill Glasgow, Robert's oldest brother, and Cheryl Stull, Coyle's sister, raised the flag, assisted by members of the U.S. Marine Corps.Members of the Golden Tornado Marching Band played the Star Spangled Banner, and the Rev. Harry Bielewicz of St. Paul Church said a prayer. The ceremony concluded with a gun salute and the playing of taps.Stull said she was overwhelmed by the ceremony. She said she is pleased that Vietnam War veterans are getting more recognition now.Bill Glasgow, who also served in Vietnam, said that he too felt that it was a nice ceremony.“You really don't see this that often,” he said.
