Memorial Service for Victims of the Upper Big Branch Mine Disaster
It's happened only once before. On April
25, 2010, President Barack Obama became
the second sitting president in U.S.
history to visit West Virginia, and the
second sitting president to visit
Beckley, long-haled as the state's
coal-mining capital city. His
predecessor, President George W. Bush,
had rallied in Beckley during his
reelection campaign in 2004, but Obama's
visit was no cause for celebration.
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Less that a month before -- on April 5, 2010 --
twenty-nine miners lost their lives after an
explosion tore through the Upper Big Branch
(UBB) Mine on Coal River Mountain less than a
hour's drive northwest of Beckley -- the most
deadly mining-related disaster since the
Buffalo Creek Flood of 1972, when a failed mine
dam in nearby Logan County unleashed a flood of
coal slurry that killed 125.
The president, vice president, governor, and other state and national dignitaries gathered at the Beckley-Raleigh County Convention Center with the families of the victims and other observers to mourn their collective loss.
Here follows a transcript of the president's remarks:
"To all the families who loved so deeply the miners we've lost, to all who called them friends, worked alongside them in the mines, or knew them as neighbors, in Montcoal and Naoma or Whitesville, in the Coal River Valley and across West Virginia, let me begin by saying that we have been mourning with you throughout these difficult days. Our hearts have been aching with you. We keep our thoughts with the survivors who are recovering and resting in a hospital and at home. We are thankful for the rescue teams, but our hearts ache alongside you.
"We are here to memorialize twenty-nine Americans -- Carl Acord, Jason Atkins, Christopher Bell, Gregory Steven Brock, Kenneth Allan Chapman, Robert Clark, Charles Timothy Davis, Cory Davis, Michael Lee Elswick, William I. Griffith, Steven Harrah, Edward Dean Jones, Richard K. Lane, William Roosevelt Lynch, Nicholas Darrell McCroskey, Joe Marcum, Ronald Lee Maynor, James E. Mooney, Adam Keith Morgan, Rex L. Mullins, Joshua S. Napper, Howard D. Payne, Dillard Earl Persinger, Joel R. Price, Deward Scott, Gary Quarles, Grover Dale Skeens, Benny
Willingham, Ricky Workman.
"Nothing I or the Vice President or the Governor, none of the speakers here today -- nothing we say can fill the hole they leave in your hearts, the absence they leave in your lives. If any comfort can be found, it can, perhaps, be found by seeking the face of God, who quiets our troubled minds, a God who mends our broken hearts, a God who eases our mourning souls.
"Even as we mourn twenty-nine lives lost, we also remember twenty-nine lives lived. Up at 4:30-5 o'clock in the morning at the latest, they began their day as they worked -- in darkness. In coveralls and hard-toe boots, a hardhat over their heads, they would sit quietly for their hour-long journey five miles into a mountain, the only light the lamp on their caps or the glow from the man trip they rode in.
"Day after day, they would burrow into the coal. the fruits of their labor, what so often we take for granted -- the electricity that lights up a convention center, that lights up our church, our homes, our school and office, the energy that powers our country and powers the world.
"Most days they would emerge from the dark mine, squinting at the light. Most days they would emerge sweaty and dirty and dusted with coal. Most days they'd come home. But not that day.
"These men, these husbands, fathers, grandfathers, brothers, sons, uncles, nephews, they did not take on their jobs unaware of the perils. Some of them had already been injured; some of them had seen a friend get hurt.
"So they understood there were risks. Their families did too. They knew their kids would say a prayer at night before they left. They knew their wives would wait for a call when their shift ended, saying everything was okay. They knew their parents felt a pang of fear every time a breaking news alert came on or the radio cut in.
"But they left for the mines anyway, some having waited all their lives to be miners, having longed to follow in the footsteps of their fathers and their grandfathers, and yet none of them did it for themselves alone.
"All that hard work, all that hardship, all the time spent underground -- it was all for their families. It was all for you, for a car in the driveway, roof overhead, for a chance to give their kids opportunities that they would never know, and enjoy retirement with their spouses. It was all in the hopes of something better. So these miners lived as they died -- in pursuit of the American dream.
"There in the mines for their families, they became a family themselves, sharing birthdays, relaxing together, watching Mountaineer's football or basketball together, spending days-off together hunting or fishing. They may not have loved what they did, said a sister, but they loved doing it together. They loved doing it as a family. They loved doing it as a community.
"That spirit is reflected in a song almost every American knows, but it's a song most people, I think, would be surprised to learn was actually written by a coal miner's son about this town, Beckley, about the people of West Virginia. It's the song "Lean on Me" -- an anthem of friendship, and also an anthem of community, of coming together.
"That community was revealed for all to see in the minutes and hours and days after the tragedy -- rescuers risking their own safety, scouring narrow tunnels saturated with methane and carbon monoxide, hoping against hope they might find a survivor, friends keeping porch-lights on in a nightly vigil, hanging up homemade signs that read, 'Pray for our miners, and their families,' neighbors consoling each other, supporting each other, leaning on one another.
"I've seen it: the strength of that community. In the days that followed the disaster, e-mails and letters poured into the White House. Postmarked from different places, they often began the same way: 'I am proud to be from a family of miners,' 'I am the son of a coal miner,' 'I am proud to be a coal miner's daughter.' They were always proud. They asked me to keep our miners in my thoughts and my prayers. Never forget, they say, miners keep America's lights on. And then in these letters they make a simple plea: Don't let this happen again. Don't let this happen again.
"How can we fail them? How can a nation that relies on its miners not do everything in its power to protect them? How can we let anyone in this country put their lives at risk by simply showing up to work; by simply pursuing the American dream?
"We cannot bring back the twenty-nine men we lost. They are with the Lord now. Our task, here on Earth, is to save lives from being lost in another such tragedy, to do what we must do, individually and collectively, to assure safe conditions underground, to treat our miners like they treat each other: like a family -- because we are all family and we are all Americans and we have to lean on one another and look out for one another and love one another and pray for one another.
"There's a psalm that comes to mind today, a psalm we often turn to in times of heartache: 'Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.'
"May God bless our miners. God bless their families. God bless West Virginia. And God bless the United States of America."
The president, vice president, governor, and other state and national dignitaries gathered at the Beckley-Raleigh County Convention Center with the families of the victims and other observers to mourn their collective loss.
Here follows a transcript of the president's remarks:
"To all the families who loved so deeply the miners we've lost, to all who called them friends, worked alongside them in the mines, or knew them as neighbors, in Montcoal and Naoma or Whitesville, in the Coal River Valley and across West Virginia, let me begin by saying that we have been mourning with you throughout these difficult days. Our hearts have been aching with you. We keep our thoughts with the survivors who are recovering and resting in a hospital and at home. We are thankful for the rescue teams, but our hearts ache alongside you.
"We are here to memorialize twenty-nine Americans -- Carl Acord, Jason Atkins, Christopher Bell, Gregory Steven Brock, Kenneth Allan Chapman, Robert Clark, Charles Timothy Davis, Cory Davis, Michael Lee Elswick, William I. Griffith, Steven Harrah, Edward Dean Jones, Richard K. Lane, William Roosevelt Lynch, Nicholas Darrell McCroskey, Joe Marcum, Ronald Lee Maynor, James E. Mooney, Adam Keith Morgan, Rex L. Mullins, Joshua S. Napper, Howard D. Payne, Dillard Earl Persinger, Joel R. Price, Deward Scott, Gary Quarles, Grover Dale Skeens, Benny
Willingham, Ricky Workman.
"Nothing I or the Vice President or the Governor, none of the speakers here today -- nothing we say can fill the hole they leave in your hearts, the absence they leave in your lives. If any comfort can be found, it can, perhaps, be found by seeking the face of God, who quiets our troubled minds, a God who mends our broken hearts, a God who eases our mourning souls.
"Even as we mourn twenty-nine lives lost, we also remember twenty-nine lives lived. Up at 4:30-5 o'clock in the morning at the latest, they began their day as they worked -- in darkness. In coveralls and hard-toe boots, a hardhat over their heads, they would sit quietly for their hour-long journey five miles into a mountain, the only light the lamp on their caps or the glow from the man trip they rode in.
"Day after day, they would burrow into the coal. the fruits of their labor, what so often we take for granted -- the electricity that lights up a convention center, that lights up our church, our homes, our school and office, the energy that powers our country and powers the world.
"Most days they would emerge from the dark mine, squinting at the light. Most days they would emerge sweaty and dirty and dusted with coal. Most days they'd come home. But not that day.
"These men, these husbands, fathers, grandfathers, brothers, sons, uncles, nephews, they did not take on their jobs unaware of the perils. Some of them had already been injured; some of them had seen a friend get hurt.
"So they understood there were risks. Their families did too. They knew their kids would say a prayer at night before they left. They knew their wives would wait for a call when their shift ended, saying everything was okay. They knew their parents felt a pang of fear every time a breaking news alert came on or the radio cut in.
"But they left for the mines anyway, some having waited all their lives to be miners, having longed to follow in the footsteps of their fathers and their grandfathers, and yet none of them did it for themselves alone.
"All that hard work, all that hardship, all the time spent underground -- it was all for their families. It was all for you, for a car in the driveway, roof overhead, for a chance to give their kids opportunities that they would never know, and enjoy retirement with their spouses. It was all in the hopes of something better. So these miners lived as they died -- in pursuit of the American dream.
"There in the mines for their families, they became a family themselves, sharing birthdays, relaxing together, watching Mountaineer's football or basketball together, spending days-off together hunting or fishing. They may not have loved what they did, said a sister, but they loved doing it together. They loved doing it as a family. They loved doing it as a community.
"That spirit is reflected in a song almost every American knows, but it's a song most people, I think, would be surprised to learn was actually written by a coal miner's son about this town, Beckley, about the people of West Virginia. It's the song "Lean on Me" -- an anthem of friendship, and also an anthem of community, of coming together.
"That community was revealed for all to see in the minutes and hours and days after the tragedy -- rescuers risking their own safety, scouring narrow tunnels saturated with methane and carbon monoxide, hoping against hope they might find a survivor, friends keeping porch-lights on in a nightly vigil, hanging up homemade signs that read, 'Pray for our miners, and their families,' neighbors consoling each other, supporting each other, leaning on one another.
"I've seen it: the strength of that community. In the days that followed the disaster, e-mails and letters poured into the White House. Postmarked from different places, they often began the same way: 'I am proud to be from a family of miners,' 'I am the son of a coal miner,' 'I am proud to be a coal miner's daughter.' They were always proud. They asked me to keep our miners in my thoughts and my prayers. Never forget, they say, miners keep America's lights on. And then in these letters they make a simple plea: Don't let this happen again. Don't let this happen again.
"How can we fail them? How can a nation that relies on its miners not do everything in its power to protect them? How can we let anyone in this country put their lives at risk by simply showing up to work; by simply pursuing the American dream?
"We cannot bring back the twenty-nine men we lost. They are with the Lord now. Our task, here on Earth, is to save lives from being lost in another such tragedy, to do what we must do, individually and collectively, to assure safe conditions underground, to treat our miners like they treat each other: like a family -- because we are all family and we are all Americans and we have to lean on one another and look out for one another and love one another and pray for one another.
"There's a psalm that comes to mind today, a psalm we often turn to in times of heartache: 'Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.'
"May God bless our miners. God bless their families. God bless West Virginia. And God bless the United States of America."
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