Butler City’s Main Street filled with veteran banners
When the Butler American Legion Post 117 began hanging banners honoring military veterans in Butler City in 2016, no one anticipated that demand would exceed the available space.
The Legion started the program to recognize city veterans in the spring that year and by April 2019 volunteers had hung 435 banners in the most visible locations along the busiest streets in town.
“When we started this program, we never thought it would get his big,” said Jim Dittmer, post commander.
The city’s light poles on Main Street were the first to be decorated with the banners, he said. Banners were placed on all the poles that were visible from the road. Poles that are difficult to see because of trees were left out of the program, he said.
Next came the light poles on Center Avenue and Jefferson Street. The Legion didn’t want to place the banners on smaller side streets because fewer people would see them, Dittmer said.
“We figured that’s enough. The city was what I considered saturated,“ Dittmer said.
Banners commemorating service members who were killed in action received special attention. Those 35 banners were hung near the Butler County Courthouse where motorists and pedestrians can see them.
People were able to have banners placed at specific locations they requested.
Dittmer said he had a banner bearing images of himself and his late father placed on Main Street at the entrance to the Legion. Dittmer served in an armed cavalry unit in the Army, and his father, Joseph Dittmer, who died in 2005, served in the Army infantry in North Africa and Sicily, Italy in World War II
Steve Geibel had banners memorializing his late father, Stephen Geibel, and late brother, David Geibel, placed on poles outside of the family’s funeral home at the corner of South McKean and East Cunningham streets.
He said the Legion was happy to grant his request to place the banners near the funeral home because it ran out of space on Main Street.
“I thought it was a tremendous idea that the Legion started and cried out,” Geibel said. “Veterans should receive that honor and recognition for their service. This is an excellent way to do it. Very patriotic.”
His father volunteered to serve in the Merchant Marine during WWII. He said he was a seaman who worked in the engine compartment of a ship that transported troops and supplies to Europe.
“I think he made 14 crossing of the Atlantic. They were sinking those ships,” Geibel said.
His brother volunteered to serve in the Air Force and worked as an airplane weapons mechanic. He served at Air Force bases in Spain, South Korea and Langley, Va.,
“I’m very proud of their service,” Geibel said.
He said he served in the Army National Guard of Pennsylvania, but didn’t want a banner for himself.
“I never thought of one for myself,” Geibel said.
