By Ethan Nahté
The Herbert A. Littleton Detachment No. 1261 Marine Corps League (MCL) assembled for their monthly meeting at the American Legion on Sept. 16. Following roll call, commandant Ed Anderson was invited to speak first to talk of the success the MCL had in raising funds for Littleton’s plaque.
“You know, I remember thinking that Herbert A. Littleton’s from Mena — Medal of Honor — and he’s represented at the Medal of Honor Memorial. And I just wanted Mena, Polk County, to take care of HAL’s plaque. Since he’s our native son. So, we set out to raise funds for Herbert’s plaque, and if there is anything left it would go to the commission and construction of the other memorials.
“We were really pleased. At first, we set a goal of $2,500. And then we raised it. And something I want to hint at, there were two things. One was Rainwater, Holt & Sexton, [Injury Lawyers] in Little Rock. They found us because we had created a Facebook GoFundMe page. That’s how channel 11 found out about us. Because it just doesn’t go out on Facebook. It’s actually categorized in the family/emergency/funeral veteran-related items, etc., and then different organizations monitor it, and then if they see something that’s interesting, and that’s what happened was channel 11 saw and thought it was an interesting story that a local small town would be trying to raise funds for their native son for his plaque. They contacted Rainwater, Holt & Sexton.”
The law firm donated $1,000 toward the replacement of the plaque on KTHV 11’s “Saluting Heroes” that honors local heroes each month. Reporter Rolly Hoyt of KTHV 11 did a segment in June after he visited Mena on June 21 to speak with Anderson in front of the Polk County Court House where there is a memorial marker for HAL.
The following day, Anderson, along with Paul Garrett and John Smallwood of the Sydney S. McMath Detachment [No. 532] Marine Corps League of Little Rock, traveled to Little Rock to accept the check from the law firm, as well as to visit the Medal of Honor Memorial. Hoyt included those visits in the original segment that aired in June.
Hoyt also included an update in August about the local Marine Corps League raising enough funds for HAL’s plaque. The update was included at the end of the Saluting Heroes segment on KTHV 11 following a story on Garland County’s Memorial.
“We were able to receive that thousand-dollar check,” Anderson said. “We went to Little Rock. Paul and John were there. We kind of started off with a thousand dollars right off the bat.
“Long story short, locally we’ve raised $2,510. Adding the thousand dollars is a sum of $3,510. Right now, I’d like to present this cashier’s check to the representatives from the Medal of Honor Commission, Paul and John.”
Garrett said, “This check for Herbert A. Littleton will be matched by the Sydney S. McMath Detachment out of Little Rock. If any of you other detachments feel moved, we’re still a few thousand dollars away from our goal to complete this project. The goal number is $120, 000 and we’re at about $106,000-$107,000. We’ll be just north of $10,000 short when we match this check.
Certificate of Appreciation and plaque
“Our guest is Erica Watts,” Anderson said. “She’s with Pulse Multi-Media.”
Providing some background, Anderson explained, “I’m the past coordinator for Toys for Tots. This fundraiser wasn’t my first effort in the community to raise funds for different items. Man, all I’ve got to do is go into The Pulse and someone is there. That’s extremely helpful and now we have Erica. We want to welcome her if she’ll come up.
“We have a certificate of appreciation to Pulse Multi-Media. Thank you for your coverage of our plaque replacement project for Medal of Honor recipient Herbert A. Littleton.”
Anderson invited Larry Wakefield, Commandant of the Marine Corps League Department of Arkansas to present Watts with a token of gratitude. Wakefield said, “Thank you very much for your service and helping us because PR is really what makes or breaks almost everything that we do. All the coverage that we can get, we appreciate it.”
Anderson also read the engraving of a plaque that was presented at a later time to Pulse Multi-Media editor and production manager Ethan Nahté.
Wakefield said, “It’s always a good time to see a presentation like that. It’s a lot of work. We’re happy to be the beneficiary of that.”
Anderson said afterwards, “When I first heard about the damage at the Memorial, I told the Medal of Honor Commission that Mena/Polk County would take care of Herbert A. Littleton’s plaque replacement. I want to thank all of the individuals and businesses that helped us achieve our goal.”
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