'For those who didn’t come home:' Family, friends mark Memorial Day at national cemetery

Sunday marked Peggy Quatman’s first Memorial Day service without Bob.

The Glenshaw resident’s husband, a factory worker and Neville Island steelworker, once stood shoulder-to-shoulder with his U.S. Navy peers while serving during the Vietnam War.

His bleach-white headstone — section 13, site No. 460 — in the National Cemetery of the Alleghenies now stands shoulder-to-shoulder with those who served.

He died Jan. 15 of natural causes. He was 77.

Peggy Quatman, 76, visited her husband’s headstone this weekend for the first time since his military burial earlier this year. Flanked by two adult children — Colleen and Eric — she stood motionless in front of the grave for several minutes.

The afternoon sun blazed; freshly planted grass near the headstone had faded from green to beige. The soldier two headstones down — Air Force veteran Henry E. Roll, Jr. — died this year, too, she quietly noted. Two days after Bob.

She looked down once or twice at her hands. The hand that held her silver cane shook ever so slightly.

“This was his favorite holiday,” she said, her voice shaky. “I do this for him.”

Solemn reminder

Moments earlier, Peggy and her family listened as a Coast Guard commander sought in his keynote address to find the spirit of Sunday’s annual Memorial Day service at the Washington County cemetery.

“Memorial Day is our solemn reminder of the cost of the freedom and rights we so often take for granted,” said Cmdr. Justin R. Jolley, who leads a U.S. Coast maritime unit in Pittsburgh. “And every day on this hallowed ground is Memorial Day.”

The first soldier was buried among 292 acres of rolling hills in the National Cemetery of the Alleghenies on Aug. 15, 2005, Jolley said.

In the 19 years that followed, more than 26,000 were interred there — an average of four burials a day, seven days a week, Jolley said. The cemetery’s flags drop to half-staff 30 minutes before the day’s first burial and are raised 30 minutes after the day’s last.

“Attending the funeral of your best friend — that’s what Memorial Day is all about,” said state Sen. Camera Bartolotta, R-Washington, who also spoke Sunday. “We are able to live our best lives because of their sacrifice.”

More than 37,000 soldiers are buried in one of 130 national cemeteries like the one in Cecil, said Edward A. Hajduk, director of the National Cemetery of the Alleghenies.

Jolley understands sacrifice.

His grandfather — Tony Jolley, a farm boy from Idaho — enlisted with his cousin into the U.S. Navy in 1941.

Tony Jolley came home. His cousin, Barry, didn’t.

Barry Jolley, a seaman second class, died alongside 1,100 soldiers on the USS Arizona when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.

More than 1.3 million American soldiers have died in battle since the Revolutionary War, officials said Sunday. Their average age, just 22. Barry Jolley was 18.

“Let us work toward a future where the values they defended are celebrated and cherished,” the commander said. “Let us vow to keep their memories alive. Let us tell their stories.”

Tradition carries on

Sunday’s ceremony— which started in late-spring sun, after a morning where characteristically Pittsburgh-esque clouds appeared to hug the horizon — offered many familiar details.

Canon-McMillan High School students sang the national anthem.

The South Hills Veteran Honor Guard, a group of about dozen older men dressed in well-pressed white uniforms with navy slacks, fired their rifles in salute.

There was a wreath presentation, and two blessings from a VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System chaplain. A bagpiper played “Amazing Grace.”

Harry Wheeler, Jr. finds the details prescient every time.

The South Hills native’s sense of military tradition is genetic. Wheeler served in the U.S. Navy from 1969 to 1973. His father, a World War II vet also named Harry, landed on Omaha beach on June 6, 1944, or D-Day, which remains the largest seaborne invasion in mankind’s history.

A total of 4,414 soldiers, more than 2,500 of them Americans, died on D-Day, said Hajduk, the cemetery director.

As a member of the Patriot Guard Riders of Pennsylvania, Wheeler rode his motorcycle — a 2021 Indian Scout — from his home off McMurray Road down to Washington County on Sunday morning. He did it to hold the American flag high during the hour-long ceremony.

“I try to do this every year, come out and show respect,” he said.

A veteran representative for Patriot Guard Riders, Tiffany Simmons, stood alongside about 10 veterans to also hold the U.S. flag high.

“Memorial Day’s a lot different — a lot of people see it as a reason to picnic,” said Simmons, 53, who grew up in New Kensington and today lives in Lower Burrell. “But, really, Memorial Day is for those who didn’t come home.”

Simmons’ father survived his turn in the U.S. Navy during World War II. George Evan, who was born in Monessen in 1925, returned from the war to serve 39 years with the state police, including a tenure as the force’s deputy commissioner.

He died in 2010 at age 85.

Spanning generations

Five soldiers were among those recognized by name during Sunday’s service.

One was Walter Schleiter, a U.S. Navy fireman first-class who was aboard the USS Oklahoma when the ship was attacked in Pearl Harbor by Japanese aircraft on Dec. 7, 1941, said Hajduk, the cemetery director. The bodies of only 35 of the 429 crewman killed on the ship were identified.

Recently, though, evolving technology helped identify Schleiter’s remains in May 2018, Hajduk said. He was buried April 11 in the cemetery’s section 6.

U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Lynn P. Augustine was another.

He was flying a B-24 plane — nicknamed “Little Lulu” — on June 20, 1944 when enemy fighters shot him down and he crashed into the Baltic Sea, Hajduk said. His remains were never recovered.

The legacy of those killed in action, however, did not end with World War II.

Hajduk memorialized two men — U.S. Army Cpl. Russell G. Culbertson III and U.S. Marines Sgt. Ryan H. Lane — killed less than 20 years ago in the modern-day War on Terror.

An improvised explosive device, or IED, destroyed the vehicle Culbertson was riding in 2006 in Iraq. Lane was killed in action in 2009 in Afghanistan. Both men are interred in the cemetery’s section 2.

“The cost of war is priceless,” Hajduk said. “The least we can could is memorialize these soldiers and their service.”

Father and son served

Peggy Quatman wore heart-shaped earrings embossed with the American flag to the Memorial Day service this weekend. Red and blue stitching adorned the sleeves of her white blouse.

For the Quatmans, Sunday’s service wasn’t the same without Bob. “Beloved husband, beloved father,” his headstone reads.

Bob and Peggy Quatman were dating but not yet married when he left to serve the U.S. Navy in Vietnam in 1964, she said. When he returned four years later, Bob was very patriotic, never missing a celebration or memorial for America’s soldiers.

Bob Quatman often talked about his experiences with his kids, Eric and Colleen Quatman said. He volunteered to help stage events for years at his Veterans of Foreign Wars lodge: Mount Royal Post 9199 in Shaler.

His son, Eric, followed in his father’s path, serving with the U.S. Air Force from 1991 through 1998, including tours in Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War.

“My experience was very different from his,” said Eric Quatman, 51, of McCandless. “But, because of his stories, I kind of knew what it was all about.”