Military honors: Veterans Honor Wall dedication Monday in Mansfield Cemetery

MANSFIELD — World War II U.S. Navy sailor Robert Mack will get his final resting place Monday on Veterans Day.

Mack, who died in 2001 at the age of 77, will be the first veteran to have his cremains placed in the new Veterans Honor Wall at Mansfield Cemetery on Monday afternoon at the end of a ceremony dedicating the new columbarium.

The cremains of his wife, Sarah, will be placed with him during the event marking the official opening of a $270,000 “Cremations Honors Wall Project” aimed at providing local military veterans with a new internment option.

The dedication ceremony begins at 2 p.m., following the annual Veterans Day Parade that steps off Monday at 10:30 a.m. at the five-way light.

The parade will travel down Park Avenue West to Central Park and end with ceremonies at the Gazebo at 11 a.m.

Why is the date and time so significant?

During World War I, fighting ended on Nov. 11, 1918, when an armistice went into effect on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. 

Nearly 20 years later, legislation passed on May 13, 1938, officially made Nov. 11 of each year a federal holiday, originally known as “Armistice Day,” according to the the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs website.

Mack served in the U.S. Navy from 1943 to 1946, a participant as a gunner on merchant vessels in the dangerous Murmansk Russia Runs, convoy duty in the treacherous North Atlantic.

During the effort, thousands of cargo ships, manned by tens of thousands of brave British, Canadian, and American civilian merchant mariners, along with Navy and Coast Guard personnel, made the hazardous voyages carrying invaluable supplies to America’s chief Allies — Great Britain and the Soviet Union.

Mack received two Bronze medals from Russia for his service, and also a certificate signed by former Russian President Boris Yeltsin for his courage and contributions to the Allied support of Russia during its fight against Germany.

“We were scared, but that’s part of life, isn’t it?” Mack told the Mansfield News Journal during a 1996 interview.

Military service ran in his family. His great-grandfather fought in the Civil War and his father in World War I. One of his sons served in the Vietnam War.

The Veterans Honor Wall was funded by the Richland County Veterans Service Commission, working with Pam Bautz, administrator of the Mansfield Cemetery Association.

Ground was broken for the wall in August on the city’s southeast side.

“With the breaking of this ground, the veterans of Richland County will be guaranteed a resting place for many years to come,” said Doug Theaker, the president of the Richland County Veterans Service Commission.

Theaker said at the groundbreaking that it’s the mission of the local veterans service commission to provide services for military veterans.

(The columbariums below will be ready for dedication on Monday at the Mansfield Cemetery as part of the Veterans Honor Wall.)

“This is just one example … a big example,” he said in August. “Since this was released in the news (media), seven people have already called in and said they want a space when it’s their turn to go.

“So that is significant and that’s important,” Theaker said.

The need for the planned columbarium walls — spaces designed especially for cremation urns — is growing across the country.

The National Funeral Directors Association in 2023 projected that 60.5 percent of Americans would choose cremation over traditional burial, a number the organization projected will rise to 80 percent by 2035.

Ken Estep, executive director of the local veterans commission, said in July local veterans officials began to notice the shift in cremation over traditional burials during a visit to the Ohio Western Reserve National Cemetery in Rittman.

“They just almost expanded … everything they’re doing is on the columbariums,” he said. “When I started to look at that, I thought, ‘We need to think about what we could do to make it so our (veterans) in Richland County can stay in Richland County, if they so desire.”

Estep and others on the commission credited Bautz for her work on the project.

Bautz said during the August ceremony she was excited to see the project, which has been in the works for a few years, finally underway.

“I think (we) started talking about this with the veterans commission five or six years ago after I first got here and started looking at the future of the cemetery,” Bautz said.

Bautz said the project will expand the life of the Honor Grounds cemetery land owned by the local veterans commission. It will also provide a centralized ceremonial area at the Honor Grounds.

State commander Ohio VFW to speak at Gazebo

Crestline resident Kari Pfeifer, VFW Department of Ohio commander, will be the keynote speaker during the Gazebo ceremonies at the conclusion of the parade on Monday.

Pfeifer joined the Ohio Air National Guard 179th Airlift Wing as an aeromedical services technician in April 1990, retiring as a master sergeant in July 2011, after 21 years of service.

During her time with the 179th, she deployed to several locations within the
United States, and several locations overseas, including Saudi Arabia and Oman.

She is member of the Harley Helfrich VFW Post 2920 in Crestline has served as the post junior vice commander, quartermaster and trustee.

She served as District 10 Commander of the VFW in 2016-2017, and VFW Department of Ohio Co-Chair for Veteran and Military Support from 2013 – 2020.

In August 2017, Pfeifer was appointed to the National VFW Women Veterans Advisory Committee by National Commander-in-Chief Keith Harman. She represented the Big
10 Conference for the VFW.

She also served on the executive committee for the Ohio Veterans Hall of Fame from 2014-2020, including four years as chairperson.

Pfeifer is is also serving on the Ohio War Orphans and Severely Disabled Veteran Children Scholarship Board.

In June 2024, she was elected VFW Department of Ohio Commander.