5 names to be added to Kentucky National Guard Memorial
Published 11:55 am Wednesday, May 17, 2023
The Kentucky National Guard announced Monday that the annual Memorial Day observance will be at 10 a.m., Monday, May 29, at the Kentucky National Guard Memorial located at the entrance of the Boone National Guard Center, off US 127 in Frankfort.
At the ceremony, five names will be added to the memorial that honors Kentucky National Guard men and women who died in the line of duty, bringing the number of names on the memorial to 291 Soldiers and Airmen since 1912. Of the new names being added, one died in 1919 following federal service on the southwest border, one in 1937 following state active duty in Louisville during the great flood of 1937, and three others who died during WWII.
Pvt. John W. Hoge, 26, of Louisville, died of service-connected disabilities in Louisville on Apr. 1, 1919. He was among the troops called out for border duty, as part of the expedition to capture Poncho Villa. While on this duty, he sustained an attack of acute Bright’s disease, from which he never recovered.Pvt. Bernard J. Berghaus, 20, of Louisville, died of pneumonia on Feb. 11, 1937, in the Louisville City Hospital, which he contracted while serving on state active duty in Louisville during the great flood of the Ohio River in 1937, which killed 385 people between Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Cairo, Illinois.
Cpl. Lloyd J. George, 23, of Myers, in Nicholas County, was killed in action Jan. 30, 1943, during the Allied invasion of northwestern Africa. In January 1947, the Carlisle Veterans of Foreign Wars Post No. 8666 was named in his honor as he was the first Nicholas County Soldier killed in action in WWII.
Capt. Cecil D. Butler, 34, of Russell, in Greenup County, was killed in the line of duty on Dec. 17, 1944, while serving during the opening days of the Battle of the Bulge. Butler was posthumously promoted to captain upon his death and was the recipient of the Bronze Star Medal and Purple Heart Medal.
Lt. Col. Joseph M. Kelly, 51, of Hopkinsville, Christian County, died in an Army hospital in Brisbane, Australia, on Oct. 1, 1944, from fever contracted in the South Pacific while serving on federal active duty. Kelly first served in the Navy during WWI, then enlisted in the Kentucky National Guard in 1922.
This year’s ceremony will also commemorate the 20th anniversary of the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom, where 14 Kentucky National Guardsmen died in the line of duty.
