Ashe County Armed Forces Tribute Day Awarded Official Pictorial Postmark

Days after the 2007 Armed Forces Tribute last year, Drew Martin, West Jefferson Postmaster, approached

Tribute organizer, Vicky Moody, with the idea of having a commemorative pictorial postmark for the 2008 Tribute. With the goal of the Tribute to involve every aspect of the community in this day of appreciation, the idea was a hit. The US Postal Service offers pictorial postmarks as a community service to commemorate local events in communities nationwide, but the process must be completed by the local organizers. Local artist and veteran, Stephen Shoemaker, agreed to create an original work of art depicting this tribute to veterans, active duty military and reservists.

After the original pen and ink artwork was created, the art was produced into a camera-ready file for submission to the Raleigh Post Office. Sandy Shatley of Carolina Printing provided the technology and expertise for this aspect of the process. Following US Postal Service approval, the image is then imprinted onto a rubber stamp that is used on the day of the event to postmark mail.

Available only for 30 days, this collector's item will also be on sale as a silk cachet of the postmark on a Purple Heart envelope at the event on Saturday, Aug. 23, 2008 at Ashe County Park. Postmaster Drew Martin and USPS employee Dan Suggs, stepfather of an active National Guard solider who has earned two Purple Hearts in Iraq, will have a booth set up at the Tribute for the mailing of letters and packages, as well as the keepsake cancellations. Mail order requests must be postmarked no later than 30 days following the requested pictorial postmark date of August 23, 2008.

Being a veteran made this project very personal for Shoemaker as he sought to portray the heart and soul of an Ashe County known for its willingness to serve. Based on the World War I 'doughboy' image, the work features an infantryman carrying a bayonet against a backdrop of Old Glory with a flurry of campaign streamers. This penned postmark captures the flavor of the citizen soldier who volunteers to serve when called, then returns from battle to pick up his plow once again. Shoemaker's father, Joseph Clark Brown, served in the 30th Artillery Division in France during World War I, thus his use of the 30th Division helmet on the doughboy. When asked why he chose a doughboy solider to depict the Armed Forces, Shoemaker explained, "They are all soldiers. Doesn't matter the service, doesn't matter if they are cooks or doctors or pilots. First and foremost, they are soldiers."

The 'Doughboy Diaries from WWI' provides a vivid portrayal of this soldier who exemplified the doughboy Shoemaker selected for his model, the term for all American forces in France in World War I, as it continues to describe the members of the Armed Forces to this day. 90th anniversary of the Second Battle of the Marne is this year - 2008. This was the first time American troops were sent into battle on the Allies' side in France in May 1918, turning the tide of battle in WWI to the Allies. American soldiers, young and inexperienced, held their ground, turning back the onslaught of German troops about to overrun France. Published in 1920 after the end of World War I, Henry R. Miller's The First Division forward included these thought provoking words of the doughboy in battle : "It is easy to forget. And we, it seems, are fast forgetting that but lately men in thousands were dying, in hundreds of thousands risking death, mutilation, enduring the agony of battle, creating a new tradition of American manhood, at our command.There lay the best of America, not dead nor sleeping, but alive as long as we will it to live. For America, if it is anything lasting, means what they showed-free, unswerving loyalty to an ideal. Who shall say that they who died there lacked vision of that ideal, even though on their unschooled tongues it could never have become articulate? They paid to the uttermost for their faith. And an even greater thing was found a little beyond-the thin line of the survivors; too weary for words, four days and nights sleepless, without food save the crusts they had gleaned from the packs of the enemy dead, souls lacerated by their ordeal. They had just been told that the expected relief was not at hand, that in the morning they were to leapfrog the first wave and go over again; most of them, and they knew it, to join their comrades in sleep. And not a quiver, not a doubt, not a fear, not a regret. They were ready. While that spirit endures, America shall live. When America can forget, that spirit will die."

This spirit is alive and well as displayed by the service of many men and women with ties to Ashe County, who serve not a war, but an ideal of loyalty to the tenets of freedom, duty, of service to mankind.

Join us in honoring those who have served and are serving in the United States Armed Forces by supporting the Tribute on Saturday August 23, 2008 at Ashe Park. Names of active duty service members for receiving the quilted stockings made by the Piece Makers Quilt Guild can be turned in to the ACAFT office at 303A East 2nd St in West Jefferson. Military biography forms for the Wall of Honor can also be picked up there and from the county veteran's office in the Jefferson Court House. Gates open at 8am, with the live broadcast by UNC-TV scheduled for 10:30-12:00. The traditional Smokey Mountain Barbeque lunch begins at 12:30, free to all veterans, active duty and reserves, with supporters being asked to donate the cost of their meals. Events will continue throughout the afternoon.

More information on the postal cancellation process can be obtained from your local post office. For additional information on the Tribute, call 336.846.1251, stop by the office at 303A East 2nd Street in West Jefferson, or click on www.AsheCountyArmedForces.org.