Deghand to be inducted into division Hall of Fame
Master Sgt. Bernard Lee “Bernie” Deghand of Mayetta, who was killed in action in 2006 while serving with the Kansas National Guard in support of the War on Terror in Afghanistan, will be posthumously honored in September by his fellow members of the 35th Infantry Division with a place in the division’s Hall of Fame.
Deghand is one of five former members of the 35th Infantry Division who will be inducted into the 35th Division Hall of Fame during a special ceremony set for Saturday, Sept. 12 at the Kansas City Airport Hilton Hotel in Kansas City, Mo. The ceremony is part of the 2015 35th Division Association Annual Conference, it was reported.
Deghand, who was Jackson County’s first casualty in the War on Terror, will be the second Jackson Countian to be inducted into the 35th Division Hall of Fame. The first was the late Capt. Elwin I. Shopteese, a 2013 inductee and member of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation who served during World War II and participated in the D-Day invasion at Normandy.
Other former members of the 35th Division who will be inducted into the Hall of Fame include Sgt. Lawnie Coffman, Pfc. Murray Leff, Capt. Samuel G. O’Brien, Pfc. Halbert Edward Olson and Staff Sgt. Jack L. Ulmer. In addition to Deghand and Shopteese, other notable members of the Hall of Fame include former President Harry S. Truman and former Arkansas governor Orval Faubus.
The 35th Division Hall of Fame recognizes individuals who have had or have a service connection with the 35th Division at any time, beginning in 1917 with the initial activation of the 35th Infantry Division. The Hall of Fame is located in the 35th Division Museum at the Museum of the Kansas National Guard in Topeka.
Its inductees have made significant contributions to the achievement, tradition or history of the 35th Division of the United States Army, the 35th Division Association and their community, state or nation. Criteria for induction include honorable service in the division or in a unit attached or assigned to the division, 20 years of retirement from the division, or three years after death.
Deghand was killed in action on Sept. 15, 2006, in Spira, Afghanistan, as a result of small arms fire while conducting combat operations as part of Operation Mountain Fury, part of Operation Enduring Freedom and an anti-Taliban operation. At the time of his death, Deghand, 42, was a sergeant first class; he was posthumously promoted to master sergeant.
A year after his death, the first of two notable dedications to Deghand was made prior to the Hall of Fame recognition. A fallen soldier memorial was placed on the Jackson County Courtyard at the southeast corner of Holton’s Town Square in Deghand’s honor, and it features a brick walk containing the names of Deghand and other Jackson Countians killed in the line of military duty.
In 2008, Deghand’s name was attached to the creation of a new Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) post, Bernard Lee Deghand Memorial Post 12073, housed at Fort Leavenworth. Deghand had been a VFW member, and a majority of the post’s members at the time of its creation were also members of the 35th Division, it was reported.
