Bill Text: WV SCR13 | 2017 | Regular Session | Introduced

West Virginia Senate Concurrent Resolution 13 (Prior Session Legislation)

Introduced

Bill Title: US Army CPL James Russell Carter Memorial Road

Spectrum: Bipartisan Bill

Status: (Passed) 2017-04-07 - House Message received [SCR13 Detail]

Download: West_Virginia-2017-SCR13-Introduced.html

SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 13

(By Senators Mullins, Plymale, Stollings, Cline and Beach)

[Introduced February 15, 2017]

Requesting the Division of Highways to name a portion of County Route 19/12, Blue Jay Drive, near Beaver, WV, beginning at point (37.751566) (-81.147914), at the intersection of Ritter Drive and Skyline Drive, and ending at point (37.737316) (-81.136157), at the intersection of Oak Street and Rabbit Run, the “U. S. Army CPL James Russell Carter Memorial Road”.

Whereas, CPL James Russell Carter was born September 19, 1929, in Raleigh, West Virginia, to Russell and Agatha Carter; and

Whereas, CPL Carter grew up in Raleigh and Blue Jay, West Virginia and attended Shady Spring High School and the Raleigh Mine Institute; and

Whereas, Before enlisting in the United States Army, CPL Carter worked as a delivery driver for Coca-Cola; and

Whereas, On March 3, 1950, CPL Carter enlisted in the United States Army, attending basic training and artillery training in Fort Knox, Kentucky; and

Whereas, Upon completion of training, CPL Carter was sent to Fort Lewis, Washington, where he boarded a ship for Korea; and

Whereas, Upon arriving in Korea in August of 1950, CPL Carter was assigned to the 15th Field Artillery Battalion A Battery, participating in battles along the Naktong perimeter and the push north to the Chinese-Korean border along the Yalu River; and

Whereas, Following China’s entry into the Korean theater, CPL Carter fought battles at Kunu-Ri and Hoengsong Valley north of Wonju; and

Whereas, On February 13, 1951, during the Battle of Hoengsong, later called the Hoengsong Valley Massacre, CPL Carter was captured while his unit was attempting to clear a Chinese road block; and

Whereas, CPL Carter subsequently died at the hands of his Chinese captors on the side of a remote Korean road never to be seen again; and

Whereas, A TIME correspondent called the Hoengsong Valley Massacre, “[P]art of the most horribly concentrated display of American dead since the Korean War began.”; and

Whereas, Korean War veteran Dick Ecker described the massacre thusly, “It was, of course, the nature of the fatalities in this action that was the real tragedy—many of them MIA, never found and declared dead or captured and died in captivity.”; therefore, be it

Resolved by the Legislature of West Virginia:

That the Division of Highways is hereby requested to name a portion of County Route 19/12, Blue Jay Drive, near Beaver, WV, beginning at point (37.751566) (-81.147914), at the intersection of Ritter Drive and Skyline Drive, and ending at point (37.737316) (-81.136157), at the intersection of Oak Street and Rabbit Run, the “U. S. Army CPL James Russell Carter Memorial Road”; and, be it

Further Resolved, That the Commissioner of the Division of Highways is hereby requested to have made and be placed signs at both ends identifying the road as the “U. S. Army CPL James Russell Carter Memorial Road”; and, be it

Further Resolved, That the Clerk of the Senate is hereby directed to forward a copy of this resolution to the Commissioner of the Division of Highways.