Two mothers of veterans honored

From left, Dorothy Goodin presents Sandy Deraps and Lisa Corbet with poppies Sunday, Sept. 30, 2018, to place on the American Legion Auxiliary's 100th anniversary Poppy Drive poster. Deraps and Corbet were honored at Gold Star Mother's Day at the American Legion Post 5 for their sons' sacrifices.
From left, Dorothy Goodin presents Sandy Deraps and Lisa Corbet with poppies Sunday, Sept. 30, 2018, to place on the American Legion Auxiliary's 100th anniversary Poppy Drive poster. Deraps and Corbet were honored at Gold Star Mother's Day at the American Legion Post 5 for their sons' sacrifices.

Two area mothers whose sons made the ultimate sacrifice for their country were honored at a Gold Star Mother's Day event Sunday.

Lisa Corbet, the mother of Sgt. Talon Leach, and Sandy Deraps, the mother of Lance Corporal Leon Deraps, were honored and given handmade patriotic quilts at the event.

"When an active duty service member dies, his or her mother automatically becomes a Gold Star Mother," said Sallie Jacobs, the American Legion Auxiliary's Unit 5 membership secretary. "It's a distinction that no mother wants, but it's one they wear proudly."

Each year on Gold Star Mother's Day, the United States president calls on Americans to display the nation's flag and hold appropriate meetings to publicly express their love, sorrow and reverence toward Gold Star Mothers and their families.

"I'm very touched by this program, and I thank you all so very much for your kindness and love for our country," Sandy Deraps said.

Leach and Leon Deraps were Marines. Leach joined in 2010 after attending North Callaway High School. He was part of the second Raider Battalion, stationed at Camp Lejeune. He was among 16 service members killed in a plane crash July 10, 2017, when a military transport plane went down in soybean fields in the Mississippi Delta.

Corbet said Leach was born to be a Marine, and was climbing trees around barbed wire fences at the age of 2. "He's always loved the adventure. The more dangerous, the better," she said. "He loved jumping out of planes, he loved scuba diving, everything you can think of."

Leon Deraps was a Jamestown native who joined the Marines in 2005 and was killed in 2006 after being deployed with members of his engineering unit to Fallujia, Iraq. He died during combat operations against enemy forces.

Sandy Deraps said her son was the happiest of six children, and was excited to join the Marines. Part of his job involved going out at night to repair roads that were bombed.

"He was just willing to do and willing to help in any way he can. And I just know that he just ran ahead, and we'll see him again," she said.

Military historian Jeremy Amick gave the keynote speech to the approximate two dozen people attending the event, telling the audience: "On a personal level, as I gaze upon those who are here today, I am reminded of what makes this the greatest nation on earth: the families that continue to support the preservation of memory of their loved ones who sacrificed everything to the service of their country."

Amick said a group of war mothers from throughout Missouri gathered in Jefferson City in 1929 to dedicate a small granite monument on the west end of town to honor their sons who were killed in World War I. Years later, the monument was found discarded in a vacant wooded lot, he said, but has been rededicated in Memorial Park.

"Exactly 100 years ago today, we lost a young soldier for whom this American Legion post is named: Roscoe Enloe," Amick said.

He said the Jefferson City man was killed in action during WWI on Sept. 30, 1918, after being shot in the lung by a German machine gun.