Ralph Mayville gives thanks

By Hailey Trealout

Ralph Mayville is a World War Two veteran who served in the Devil’s Brigade, the first Special Service Force. On September 24, Mayville was sent to the Spearhead reunion in Washington where he was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest honour the American government can present.

Before the trip, a fundraising campaign was held to help pay for the trip.  After the Remembrance Day ceremony, Mayville’s supporters attended a dinner at Branch 143 on Howard Avenue to be recognized for contributing to his trip.

Mike Timoshyk was the host for the event. He said the close community in Windsor was the main topic of conversation when they were in Washington where the possibility of the next reunion being in Windsor was brought up.

“In September, we’ve got lots of stuff going on, to commemorate the battle of Lake Erie, we have the tall ships coming up to Windsor,” said Timoshyk.

“What we want to do is try to dovetail the reunion along with all of these celebrations, we’re going to plan on holding the Southern Ontario Military Muster on the water front so the city can see what’s going on, so all these things tied together will bring historical interest to the city. It was an election unit, so this year they didn’t want to politicize it, so it may be done down here in Windsor next year.”

The Colour Guard Commander for Branch 594, Armand Rock, has known Mayville for years through the legion. He received a copy of the Devil’s Brigade emblem signed by Mayville for the Legion’s contribution towards the Washington trip.

“It symbolises that we helped Ralph monetarily to get to Washington to meet his comrades,” said Rock, 72. “He’s graciously given everyone who contributed to his trip a copy of their emblem. The original emblem is at our Legion because he was a member of our branch and he loaned it to us. We also have a German flag that they captured. We’re very proud of Ralph.”

One of the organizers for Mayville’s fundraiser and the dinner was Cathy Moczko. She said it has been a long time since the Legion has been recognised for doing a free dinner for verterans.

“Since we have left over money from the donations of the community before we left for Washington, we have decided to put up this dinner,” said Moczko. “So it is a lot better doing it this way in the Legion because every veteran belongs to a legion. On behalf of Ralph, we just have to think and remember the ones who were with him in the force, and to honour them.”