HARRISBURG (PRNewswire) – Gov. Ed Rendell is asking that flags be flown at half staff Wednesday in Pennsylvania in honor of a soldier killed in Iraq.
Gov. Rendell and Judge Marjorie Rendell, Pennsylvania’s first lady, extend their sympathies to the family and friends of Staff Sgt. David Veverka of Jamestown who was killed in action in Iraq May 6.
Sgt. Veverka was a member of the Maine Army National Guard, B Company, 3rd Battalion of the 172nd Infantry Regiment, based in Brewer.
“I extend my prayers and heartfelt sympathy to the family and friends of Staff Sgt. Veverka,” said Gov. Rendell. “Staff Sgt. Veverka was an outstanding and dedicated young man who made the ultimate sacrifice for his country.”
The governor has ordered all state flags under his jurisdiction on commonwealth property in Mercer County and at the Capitol Complex to be flown at half staff Wednesday to honor the memory of Sgt. Veverka.
Staff Sgt. Veverka, 25, died when a roadside bomb hit his convoy in Ad Diwaniyah, Iraq. A second soldier from the same unit was also killed and a third was seriously injured.
Staff Sgt. Veverka, a 1999 graduate of Jamestown High, was one semester away from graduating from the University of Maine.