A veteran with no ties to the Basin showed a great deal of patriotism and selfless love last week as he personally delivered a battle cross to the mother of Sgt. Daniel Gurr, Vernal’s local hero who lost his life 5 years ago while serving in the war in Afghanistan. Daniel’s mother Tracy Beede had purchased a battle cross online a year and a half ago but it didn’t survive the mail delivery. “They are pretty heavy and stand about 2 ½ feet tall,” explains Beede. “The woman who sold it to me, however, was bound and determined to find a way to have a new one delivered.” The woman, Susan Conkey of Ohio, began searching for a way to have the battle cross delivered, without much success, that is until 70-year-old Joseph Richter heard about the situation. Joseph, a war veteran, overheard people talking about it in his Ohio town. Shocked that no one had yet volunteered, he got ahold of Susan and told her he would deliver the battle cross to Utah himself. Patriot riders and American Legion groups escorted him along almost every mile of the drive with the local Patriot Riders group meeting him in Dinosaur and escorted him into Vernal. There at the Uintah County war memorials on Highway 40, the 70-year-old war veteran handed the battle cross to the loved ones of Sgt. Gurr, proving that charity and patriotism still beat strong in true American hearts.
