Your Hometown News Source
Your Hometown News Source
First Sgt. Mitch Kriebel carried the Thin Blue Line as he approached Dayton at the bottom of Willow Creek Grade.
Dayton First Grade teacher Susan Payne remembers First Sgt. Mitch Kriebel from his years in high school at Garfield-Palouse, when she was on the teaching staff there. Payne followed Kriebel's progress, and made sure her class of First Graders got to meet and support him. From left: Lucas Wiley, Tallon Sheer, Elias Trevino, Aubree Burns, Kaylee Birran, Alaric Oliveros, Oliver Brooks, Gracie Ortiz, Melody Gillum, Timber Herbst, Noah Massey, and Mrs. Payne. Standing beside Kriebel is Calvin Wyatt.
Ruck for the Fallen's Mitch Kriebel gets support from Columbia County Undersheriff Robbie Patterson on his way through Dayton last week.
By Dotty Van Vogt
Special to the Dayton Chronicle
DAYTON–First Sergeant Mitch Kriebel's 150-mile "Ruck for the Fallen" brought him through Dayton last week, on his route between Lewiston, Id., and Benton City, Wash. The warrior's quest was actively publicized on social media and in regional print and television coverage.
Kriebel, a native of Garfield-Palouse, is the founder of the nonprofit organization that raises funds and awareness for families of first responders, active military or veterans who were killed in the line of duty, or those who are experiencing physical, mental or emotional difficulties caused by the risks they face or endured.
Kriebel, who will be deployed to Poland this year, began his "Heart of a Hero" trek leaving Lewiston on Monday morning, January 18. His route followed SR12 through Pomeroy, Dayton and Prescott, continuing through the TriCities to the destination.
As he walks, he carries one of four flags attached to his rucksack: The United States flag or the Thin Green Line, Thin Blue Line or Thin Red Line, representing the military, law enforcement or firefighters.
Whenever possible at a town, Kriebel meets with personnel from local agencies, who are given the opportunity to sign the flags. Families of fallen veterans, police or fire, who receive financial assistance, may be given one of the signed flags.
Arriving in Pomeroy just before noon on Tuesday, Kriebel met with local first-responders, firefighters and law enforcement personnel at the Fire District No. 1 station on Main Street and handed off to them the Thin Red Line flag he had carried on the first day.
As Kriebel headed west out of town, he stopped at the city cemetery to view the Fallen Veteran's Memorial, located just inside the cemetery entrance. Although currently stationed in Dallas, 1st Sgt. Kriebel is a native of Garfield-Palouse, and he left a coin at the monument in memory of Jacob Henry Demand, a personal friend who was killed in combat in Iraq in 2004. Demand lived in Pomeroy as a boy before moving up to Palouse and is buried in Garfield County next to his grandfather, Henry Demand, in the Pataha Flat cemetery.
In Dayton, he connected with former serviceman and Undersheriff Robbie Patterson, and posed for photos with Susan Payne's Dayton Elementary First Grade Class. Payne knows Kriebel, and the late Jacob Demand, from years ago when she taught at Palouse.
According to the Ruck for the Fallen website, "all donations are used for the well-being of our heroes' livelihood." The rucksack carried on the back symbolizes the heaviness of the loss of these heroes, and can weigh from thirty to fifty pounds or more.
Sgt. Kriebel's rucksack is on the heavy side and what makes his effort even more amazing is that while deployed to Afghanistan as an infantryman in 2016 he suffered a severe back injury.
His ruck was shown on "NBC Right Now" on Friday, and vintage World War II airplanes from the "Hangar 180" group out of Lewiston flew over him to honor him and his ruck as he approached the Tri-Cities on Saturday. For more information about Ruck for the Fallen and the Honor Flag Program go to https://www.ruck4thefallen.org/.
