Every Name on the Lampposts: Middleburg's Hometown Heroes, 2023 to 2026

Walk Washington Street this week and you are walking past a roll call. Forty-two banners hang from the lampposts, each with a face, a branch and the years served. They go up every November and come down after Thanksgiving, and the town's vice mayor asked the crowd at Saturday's dedication to do one thing while they're up: learn the names.

American Legion Post 295 started the Hometown Heroes program in 2023 with the town and Mr. Print of Middleburg, which printed this year's batch on late nights so they could go up in time. Megan Gallagher has carried the program since the start, on her own hours and, the vice mayor said, her own money. The Post says its hardest job is getting the photos and the facts. "We only know the names when people tell us," past commander Gary Nickelson said last year. "This is a living history book."

This year's eight were dedicated Saturday morning at the Community Center. Post Commander Kevin McCarthy, who enlisted in the Navy in 1985, led the ceremony. Vice Mayor Chris Bernard spoke of memorizing the names of the ten VMI cadets killed at New Market as a freshman and admitted he can recall only two or three now. "Take the time to not just look at them while they're up," he said, "but try to remember the names."

The town has lost two of the faces on the posts since they went up. The crowd stood in silence for Asbury Lloyd Jr., who died Oct. 13 at 98, and whose homegoing service was held the weekend before. Franklin Payne, honored in 2023, died Sept. 3 at 100.

So here is the book.

New this year

Carr P. Cook Jr., Army staff sergeant, World War II. Born in Loudoun in 1919, buried at Solon Cemetery. His daughter, Phyllis Cook Taylor, accepted the banner with his granddaughter and nephew.

Harold E. "Doc" Hall, Army, 101st Airborne, honored posthumously. His only son, who served on the USS Nimitz, stood for him and counted the family on the posts: his grandfather Elwood Hall, honored in 2025, and Curtis Hatcher and Rodney Hall from 2024. "A lot of military in our family," he said. "A lot of honor."

Ricardo Pineda Inestroza, Marine Corps, serving now. He joined a couple of years ago, the first in a family that came from Honduras to wear the uniform. His brother Javier and mother Betty spoke for him. "It's not a given," Javier said of the freedom the service protects.

Charles R. "Bobby" Turner Jr. and Wayne Michael Turner, brothers raised at 111 South Hamilton Street by Charles "Jack" Turner Sr., the first Black member of the Middleburg Town Council. Bobby served in the Army in Vietnam and retired as a major; he died in 2019 and is buried at Arlington. Wayne, a pharmacist, spent 25 years in the Public Health Service and worked alongside Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders. He died in 1995. Erlene Haley Coleman spoke for his daughters, Erica and Kimberly, who call him the Clark Kent of the family.

Thomas G. Patterson, Navy, 1970 to 1990, lieutenant commander and A-6 Intruder bombardier-navigator. He couldn't attend: after 20 years in uniform he still works for the Department of Defense, and he's in Germany. His wife, Lisa, and daughter, Remy, accepted for him.

Gilbert Penwall's banner went up with the others. The Post had no family present Saturday to speak for him, and the Eccentric would like to hear from anyone who knew him.

Warier Warner, Army, 1943 to 1946. Drafted at 18, he served in France and said little about it afterward. "You just never know what sort of scars and wounds they carry," his daughter Laverne said. She brought his flag.

2025

Eighteen banners went up last year. Ethel Virginia Berryman, Army sergeant and surgical technician in the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps, World War II. John Kevin Daly, Air Force and Army, Vietnam through the war on terror. Daniel Edwards, Navy, Desert Shield and Desert Storm. Charles H. Fisher, Air Force aircraft mechanic, 1962 to 1968. Bernita "Kayse" Small Gazawi, Air Force sergeant, 1983 to 1991. Chris O. Geving, Naval Academy graduate, captain, 1975 to 2004, Persian Gulf, Iraq and Afghanistan. Elwood Hall, Army, 1944 to 1947. Jeffrey Hall, Navy, 1984 to 1988. L. Lacey Haley, Air Force, 1970 to 1974, Korea. Lewis A. Haley, Army, Korean War. Lewis E. Haley, Army, 1966 to 1969, Panama.

Rob Jones, Marine combat engineer, 2006 to 2011. An IED in Afghanistan took both his legs. He went on to medal at the Paralympics, cycle across the country and run 31 marathons in 31 days in 31 cities.

The Rev. Herman Nelson, Air Force lieutenant colonel, 21 years, Vietnam, NASA and the Pentagon. Vernon William Peterson, Army, Korean War. Steve Simmons, Army, 1966 to 1970, Vietnam. Wayne Herbert Smith, Army, 1968 to 1970, Purple Heart. Edward C. Swain Sr., Marine Corps, 1953 to 1954, and Edward C. Swain Jr., Navy, 1976 to 1980.

2024

Elizabeth Cotter, Navy lieutenant, USS Blue Ridge in Japan and navigator of the USS McFaul out of Norfolk; the Seventh Fleet named her its junior ship handler of the year in 2015. Curtis Hatcher, Army specialist, Fort Ord. Rodney Hall, Marine corporal, Camp Lejeune. Donovan Thompson, Navy petty officer, USS Essex.

Mike A. Rizik, Navy aviator in the Pacific in World War II, and Patrick J. Rizik, Navy petty officer on the USS Makin Island in the same ocean two generations later.

Wallace "Chub" Pearson of Aldie, Navy, 1944 to 1946, on the destroyer USS Hughes. His grandson put up the banner.

Asbury Lloyd Jr., Army corporal, Korea, Bronze Star. Born in Philomont in 1928, he pitched some 200 games for the Middleburg Braves, the town's all-Black team, at what was then Halls Field and is now Mickie Gordon Park. He was drafted weeks after his June 1952 wedding. South Korea gave him its Ambassador for Peace medal twice, in Seoul in 2016 and on Capitol Hill last year, and the county supervisors passed a resolution in his honor in February. A plaque is planned at the park. McCarthy said Lloyd's banner was what pushed the Post to try to fill every lamppost in town. It hangs in front of Tully Rector, on the eastbound side of Route 50. "If you knew him, you knew he loved to talk," his daughter told the crowd. "He had a story for you."

2023

The first eight went up in front of the post office, chosen in part because two of them had run one. David "Peaches" Lee, World War II, Middleburg's postmaster. Charles "Jeep" Craun, World War II. John P. Moliere, the Cuban blockade and Vietnam, founder of the National Veteran Small Business Coalition. Ollie "Buck" Thompson and John Randolph Embrey, Korea. Ron Embrey and Ricky Bell, Vietnam, both past commanders of the Post.

Franklin Payne, Army Air Corps. His parents signed for him at 17 and he was a flight engineer on a C-47. "I flew all over France and Germany," he told the Post in 2023. President Eisenhower appointed him Aldie's postmaster in 1957, and he held the job 29 years without, his family says, a sick day. He helped found Post 295, commanded it, and helped buy the building it still meets in. For decades he put the flags on the veterans' graves at Middleburg Cemetery. He turned 100 on July 12 with the Post around him and died Sept. 3, its last World War II veteran.

The banners come down after the month. The Post would like more names for next year, and only hears them when someone calls: 703-932-5834.

Disclosure: Thomas Patterson is the writer's brother-in-law.