Interchange dedicated to Blairsville graduate killed in Afghanistan

A Blairsville High School graduate who made the ultimate sacrifice for his country and his comrades was honored on May 24 as an interchange near his alma mater was named in his memory.

About 200 people — including family, friends, veterans and military and government officials — gathered for a ceremony naming the junction of routes 119 and 22 east of Blairsville as the Staff Sergeant Glen H. Stivison Jr. Memorial Interchange.

It was a bittersweet day for those who knew and loved the 1994 Blairsville High School graduate and 13-year Army veteran who was killed in action in Afghanistan. Stivison perished, along with three other members of his platoon, when their vehicle encountered an IED (improvised explosive device) on Oct. 15, 2009 as they were en route to assist fellow service members who were under attack in the province of Kandahar.

For Stivison's family members, the tears of revisiting their loss were tempered by the knowledge that their fallen soldier's sacrifice has been memorialized in such a highly visible location.

“The ceremony was wonderful. We were very thrilled with the turnout,” said Stivison's mother Jan, of Blairsville. On the event's printed program, she wrote that the many who attended the naming dedication and the sign that bears her son's name along each of the interchange's four ramps provide assurance he “will long be honored in the place that he was proud to call home.”

His father, Glen, noted he will see the signs each day when he drives to work at MGK Technologies in Homer City. While he sometimes thinks about “what might have been if (his son) hadn't been killed,” he said the signs will help to keep his son's memory alive for others: “If it's right out there where people pass it every day, they'll remember.”

Glen Stivison Jr.'s widow, Eryn, arrived for the dedication ceremony with the couple's two sons — William, 13, and Andrew, 11 — from their home in Colorado Springs, Colo., where Stivison was stationed at Fort Carson with the 569th Mobility Augmentation Company, 4th Engineer Battalion.

“It's quite an honor,” Eryn Stivison said of the interchange's new name. “It means a whole lot to us that the state of Pennsylvania has done this — recognized our hero and how much he's meant to everybody.”

She said she and her sons have received “a lot of support from a lot of different family and friends.”

That includes many of those who served with and under her late husband in the Army.

“His second family was his Army family,” she said, explaining that he was seen as a mentor by many of the younger soldiers in his unit: “Papa Sti, that's what they called him because he was always everybody's dad.”

“One of his soldiers who was with us when our boys were just babies came in from Boston” for the May 24 ceremony, she said, noting that her husband “was Papa Sti to him, too.”

A friend from Glen Stivison Jr.'s unit who could not attend — retired Sergeant First Class John Wright, now based in Korea — wrote a letter to Jan Stivison that was read to the audience by the man who was their commander, Col. Kevin Landers.

Wright, who credited Stivison with saving his life during a July 2009 incident in Afghanistan, described him as a “selfless, wonderful man.”

“A day does not go by when I do not think about him and what he did for me,” Wright wrote.

Following the ceremony, Landers explained that Wright, who is fitted with a prosthetic limb, lost a leg when he walked into an anti-personnel mine. He noted that Stivison “was there to help render the initial first aid to try to keep him alive in order for them to get him flown out of there and get back to proper medical care. There was a kinship that was born that was deeper than what already was pretty solid.”

According to the unit's formal hierarchy, Stivison worked for Wright, but Landers said he considered the two men “almost like equals because they depended upon each other. They were both tremendous leaders.”

In his remarks during the ceremony, Landers said it was Stivison's legacy of leadership that helped surviving members of the platoon rebound and carry on in the wake of the Oct. 15 IED attack that claimed the lives of the 34-year-old staff sergeant and three members of his team.

“That was the training and the leadership Staff Sergeant Stivison had left with these men,” Landers said. “It was a demonstration of the Army values exemplified by this brave warrior.”

On that fateful Oct. 15, Stivison diverted from his planned route in response to a call for help from comrades under fire, according to another of the speakers at the ceremony — Brigadier General Walter Lord, who was representing General Frank Grass, chief of the National Guard Bureau.

Lord called the new signs dedicating the routes 119/22 interchange in Stivison's memory “a tribute that pales in comparison to his noble and valorous actions, but one that he has rightly earned.”

State Rep. Dave Reed (R-Indiana), who sponsored the legislation to name the interchange for Stivison, recalled that he played varsity football against Stivison when the latter was a Bobcat at Blairsville High School and Reed was a Wildcat at neighboring Homer-Center High School.

He described Stivison, who also competed in wrestling, as “a true athlete, gentleman and soldier.” Reed pointed out that Stivison, though born in Homer City, had grown up in Blairsville, while Reed himself was born in Blairsville and grew up in Homer City.

Reed noted that Jan Stivison asked for the dedication ceremony to be held on Memorial Day weekend, in part so that more family members would be able to attend, but also because it would be a time “when we would remember all veterans.”

Sen. Don White (R-Indiana), who supported the measure designating the memorial interchange, and Rod Ruddock, chairman of the Indiana County Commissioners, also spoke at the ceremony — each drawing upon his experience as a military veteran.

White noted that every service member, at some point, asks himself: “Will I be prepared to ride into the face of danger and be prepared to make that ultimate sacrifice? For Sergeant Stivison and his team, that answer was a resounding, ‘Yes.'”

Ruddock said the naming of the interchange is a tribute that “brings great credit not only upon a great American hero, but to a family that raised a hero.”

Audience members showed their appreciation with a standing ovation for the family, including Glen Stivison Jr.'s siblings in Blairsville — Carey Harper, 36, William, 20, a National Guard specialist who is enrolled at California University of Pennsylvania, and Benjamin, 17.

Members of Blairsville's VFW Post 5821 and American Legion Post 0407 attended the ceremony to show their support while the Blairsville Military Service Group, drawn from both organizations, provided a color guard.

Al Hogue, Blairsville American Legion chaplain and VFW adjutant, recited the extensive list of medals Glen Stivison Jr. received during his military career, including a posthumously awarded Purple Heart and Bronze Star. Some of his other decorations include seven Army Achievement Medals; an Army Commendation Medal; four Army Good Conduct Medals; Afghan and Iraq campaign medals, each with a bronze service star; a Global War on Terrorism Service Medal; and a Korean Defense Medal.

Veterans on motorcycles provided an escort for the family as they arrived for the ceremony at the Park and Ride lot located at the interchange. There were members from the Patriot Guard Riders, the Firebase 493 Homer City Legion Riders and the Black Horse 141 Indiana Legion Riders.

All were there to show their respect and support for the fallen soldier and his family, though many weren't personally acquainted with the family.

Don Clayton of Blairsville, a Vietnam veteran and ride captain with the Patriot Guard Riders, was. He noted that Jan Stivison's “son was the same age as some of my daughters. He was in my house when they were growing up.”

On behalf of Blairsville Borough, borough manager Tim Evans presented Stivison family members with replica signs patterned after those posted by PennDOT at the interchange. The Blairsville Community Band provided patriotic music for the occasion and local Boy Scouts also were present.

A picnic-style luncheon followed at the Blairsville VFW post for the family, guests and ceremony participants.

There, Blairsville resident Bob Nolan presented Jan and Glen Stivison with a remembrance flag for their son, provided by the PA Hero Walk, an annual volunteer trek across the state that raises money to assist wounded service members.

The picnic included a number of menu items that were favorites of Glen Stivison  Jr. — among them a mixture of beans known as “hobo beans” that are a specialty of his paternal grandmother.

Many other friends donated dishes for the mid-day meal, while Blairsville's First United Methodist Church, where the Stivisons worship, served a spaghetti supper for the family.

“People have been so wonderful,” Jan Stivison said.

While Eryn Stivison had to return to Colorado at the end of the holiday weekend, she noted her sons were going to have an extended stay with her in-laws in Blairsville.

“They'll get to see the things their dad used to do and get to see the town,” she said.

Jeff Himler is an editor for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 724-459-6100, ext. 2910 or jhimler@tribweb.com.