Fallen troopers honored
EIGHTY-FOUR – Richard Barnhart Jr. was only six months old when his father, a state trooper working out of the Uniontown Barracks, died in the line of duty. The Hopwood man was among those who attended a service Wednesday to remember the 12 officers who have been killed on the job in Troop B, covering Fayette, Washington, Greene, Allegheny and part of Westmoreland county.
“I never knew my father. This is a way for me to get to know him. I’m just paying honor to his memory,” Barnhart said.
Barnhart said his sister Marlene Barnhart Mohr, was only a year and a half old when their father, Richard Barnhart Sr. was killed on Aug. 8, 1964, in a head-on collision on his way to a call. His mother, Marianne Barnhart, still resides in Hopwood, Barnhart said.
“My father sacrificed the ultimate sacrifice,” Barnhart said.
Trooper Tod Kelly was the most recent trooper to die in the line of duty. Kelly, 43, who worked the traffic detail throughout his state police career, died after being struck by a vehicle while removing debris from Interstate 79 on Nov. 7, 2001. His mother, Judy Kelly of Wampum, said being a trooper was her son’s childhood dream.
“He wanted to be in the state police since he was in Scouting. He was 17 when he graduated and back then, you couldn’t join at that age,” Judy Kelly said.
It was another nine years before her son was able to take the test to become a state trooper.
“He enjoyed the camaraderie with the troopers. He was always with the traffic division,” Judy Kelly said.
Judy Kelly said the state police have been wonderful to her son’s family since his death. Her grandson, Joshua Kelly, 19, had been considering a career as a police officer.
“He’s going to stay with a form of law enforcement. He’s looking at doing the computer analysis of evidence,” Judy Kelly said.
Kelly’s wife, Darlene, was on hand for the ceremony Wednesday, along with Joshua and her daughter Heather, 23, and her father-in-law, Lloyd Kelly. Cpl. Kenneth Yuhas of Troop B, Washington, presented Darlene Kelly with her husband’s state police watch.
“It’s a gold watch engraved with his name and badge number. It’s what he would have gotten when he retired,” Darlene Kelly said.
Maj. Lyle Szupinka, the commander of Area III for the state police, gave the keynote address for the ceremony held at the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 47 grounds in Eighty-Four.
“There are many, many professions out there that if you’re not careful, you can be seriously injured or killed,” Szupinka said. “I had a lot of friends who went into the coal mines or steel mills.”
Szupinka said that fatalities occur in mines, mills and construction sites, police work is the only profession is which a person may be called upon to safe a life, take a life or give their life at any time. Szupinka said an average of 140 to 160 officers nationwide lose their lives in the line of duty each year. In 2001 that number jumped to more than 220, due to the fatalities in New York City on Sept. 11.
The services included a gun salute and a fly-over by a state police helicopter from the PSP Aviation Unit in Latrobe. More than 70 officers participated in the ceremony, saluting as Taps closed the event.