Home >  Local News

Monday, March 31, 2003

By Steve Twedt, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

Midway through yesterday's "Rally for America" at the Cranberry Township Municipal Building, a speaker asked those with family members stationed in the Middle East to raise their hands.

	Cheri Skertich, left, and Beverly Bernauer, both of West View, show their support for U.S. troops yesterday during a rally at the Cranberry Township Municipal Building. Skertich is holding a photograph of her son, Christopher, who is in Oman with his Air Force unit. Bernauer's son, David, is in the Army, stationed in Kuwait. (Robin Rombach, Post-Gazette)

Dozens of open palms shot up among the waving flags and hoisted signs with slogans supporting the troops.

More than all the speeches, songs and chants -- or even a turnout that police estimated at 1,500 people -- those hands drove home what high personal stakes many local families have in seeing a quick end to the war in Iraq.

Those at the rally wanted everyone to know that they stand squarely behind their soldiers and their soldiers' mission.

"You just keep hoping and praying that they're going to be all right, as well as all the other brave men and women over there," said Renee Kerr, of Cranberry, whose brothers Michael and Kevin are with U.S. Marine support services in the Persian Gulf.

"But we're extremely proud of them and their willingness to serve. They are risking their lives for our freedoms."

Fifteen years ago, Michael Reilly, 35, and Kevin Reilly, 33, were driving tractor loads of children and their parents to the pumpkin patch each fall at Reilly's Summer Seat Farm in Ohio Township, one of the region's major Halloween attractions. Today, Michael is a logistics officer, getting supplies to the front-line troops, and Kevin is an engineer.

"What they're doing is not just a job, it's something they believe in," their sister said.

Marine Lance Cpl. Joe Barkovich, of Shaler, son of Kathy and Andrew "Buzz" Barkovich, is driving 7-ton trucks loaded with either troops or equipment back and forth along the supply line. He will turn 22 on Saturday.

His father, a retired Marine himself, said they'd been closely watching television news coverage of the war -- until they saw the first reports of convoys being ambushed.

"I knew that's where Joe was," said his father. Now they limit their viewing to a daily update each night.

"There are good days and bad days," he said. "We're hanging in there."

Yesterday's rally, organized by Cranberry resident Colleen Hroncich, featured state Reps. Daryl Metcalfe, R-Cranberry, Mike Turzai, R-Bradford Woods, and Jeff Habay, R-Shaler, and state Sen. Jane Orie, R-McCandless. The 90-minute program also included a color guard ceremony by members of the Cranberry Township Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 879 and Ohio Valley Marine Corps League 888.

"It was a great turnout," said Hroncich, who was especially grateful for the large crowd considering that it snowed much of the afternoon.

Hroncich decided to organize the rally two weeks ago, she said, largely because she believes that anti-war protesters have received a disproportionate amount of news media attention.

"Once I started telling people about it, everyone was so receptive," she said.

"Everyone really wanted a chance to show the troops that we support them."

Among those attending was Darlene Kish who, with husband Bruce, 34, a captain in the Army Reserves, both served during Operation Desert Storm in 1991. Today, her husband is stationed in Virginia and expects to be deployed to the Persian Gulf in the next few weeks.

"We both felt in '91 that [U.S. troops] left too soon. I think we should have dealt with Saddam, like we did with Noriega, and then the problems we've seen since would not have occurred."

Her husband left Feb. 10, nine days after their son David's 2nd birthday.

"He doesn't understand why his daddy's gone," Kish said. "He misses him."

It was a sentiment many around her could understand.

After the rally, Hroncich said she is not sure if she'll organize another one. She's never done anything like this before, she said, and she was still assimilating the huge response.

"We'll take a week off, then see," she decided. "But if they're going to keep doing the anti-American protests, then we're going to have to keep doing the pro-American rallies."