Sculpture honors Tuskegee Airman Roberts

PASS CHRISTIAN -- The well-known Roberts family on March 28 attended the dedication of a wooden statue carving to honor their father and husband.

Sculptor Marlin Miller of Fort Walton Beach, Fla., has created an American eagle tree carving located at War Memorial Park to honor the life and memory of Col. Lawrence Roberts, according to www.sunherald.com and www.wlox.com.

The statue is one of numerous carvings by Miller, Dayle Lewis and Dayton Scoggins made from trees left dead along the beaches of South Mississippi by the winds of Hurricane Katrina on Aug. 29, 2005.

Col. Roberts was a member of the Tuskegee Airmen, the first African-American combat flying unit that fought during World War II. 

Follow media links to read articles and see videos of Col. Roberts' family members who include wife Lucimarian Roberts, former member of the state College Board, and their children -- Robin Roberts, Sally Ann Roberts, Dorothy Roberts McEwen.  

View more carvings @ www.sunherald.com

Roberts flies in honor of her father @ www.tuskegee.edu

Tuskegee Airmen honored in Washington @ abcnews.com 

Michael Green Memorial Highway Dedication

Numerous military and veteran organizations are expected to be on hand when a dedication ceremony is held in early April for the Maj. Michael Green Memorial Highway.

The dedication is set for 10 a.m. April 3 at the Gautier Convention Center, which is located next to the city's public library and community college.

Green, an Army major and Green Beret, was killed Jan. 7, 2008, by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan. 

According to www.patriotguard.org, riders will meet Green's family at Singing River Mall to help escort them, along with the Mississippi Highway Patrol, to the dedication. 

Hundreds of residents from across Jackson County and other areas of South Mississippi braved icy wind and rain in 2008 to honor Green during his funeral procession along U.S. 90 in Gautier, part of the stretch of highway that will bear his name. 

According to The Press-Register at www.gulflive.com, the Maj. Michael Green Memorial Highway will extend from Oak Avenue near Gautier's east city limits to Shamrock Court, which connects with Library Lane where the Saturday dedication ceremony will be held. 

Officers Byrd, Gaston Share a Day

                                                            Frederick Gaston III

                                                                                                                  Photo of Byrd unavailable at this time

Two former law enforcement officers who had served in Moss Point and Pascagoula share a day that has its yearly anniversary in late March.

Frederick Gaston III., who was a deputy with the Jackson County Sheriff's Department when he was shot to death in 2008, was born March 27, 1959. He was 49 years old. 

On that same date Patrolman Micheal Byrd, a member of the Pascagoula Police Department, lost his life in a motorcycle accident on Chicot Road in 2006. At the time of Byrd's death, Gaston was with the Gulfport Police Department. 

Gaston had served with the Moss Point Police Department since 2007, and was interim police chief from January to mid-summer 2008.

Gaston had only recently become a deputy for the county agency led by Byrd's father, Sheriff Mike Byrd. Gaston was on his way to military training in Virginia when he was killed during a robbery in Gastonia, N.C., on Aug. 2, 2008. 

Byrd was on his way to Singing River Hospital to see a newborn nephew when he swerved to avoid a collision with a vehicle and was thrown off his motorcycle, then tragically run over by a truck. 

The familes of the two men still pay homage to their lives on their shared day -- March 27 -- as well as the differing days of birth. 

Byrd would have turned 30 years old this coming April 11. He was born in 1979. 

Law enforcement join deputy in grief

Hundreds of law enforcement officers joined Deputy Josh Myers of Samson, Ala., to pay respects to his wife and daughter, who were laid to rest together March 15.

According to media reports at www.wkrg.com and www.wlox.com, they grieved with their comrade while helping to guard the Myers family on their way from Sorrells Fu

neral Home Chapel for burial in Samson, Ala., where Andrea Myers had been visiting with neighbors when she and 19-month-old daughter Corinne were killed. 

Deputy Myers' wife and children, including Ella, 3 months, and Joshua, 4 years, were visiting at the home of relatives of the gunman who also killed four of his relatives that day. Michael Kenneth McLendon gunned down his mother, uncle, cousin, aunt, and then killed himself. 

The funeral for Andrea and Corinne Myers was the second held for the shooting victims of Michael McLendon. The first, for Sonya Lolley Smith, was held Saturday, March 14. 

Photo: www.wkrg.com

Deputy loses wife, daughter in shooting rampage

A Geneva County, Ala., deputy was helping to chase down a gunman March 10 when the same man shot and killed the deputy's wife and 18-month-old daughter.  

Deputy Josh Myers said he was devastated after learning that his wife, Andrea, and his daughter, Corinne, were killed along with several relatives of the gunman's family, according to national and local media outlets.

Reporter Tim Guidera provided information for www.wlox.com. 

The shooter, Michael Kenneth McLendon, had wanted to become a police officer or Marine, but failed at both, law enforcement officials have said.  

The mother and toddler were among 11 victims of the shooting rampage that extended across three cities in southeastern Alabama. 

Andrea Myers was visiting with neighbors in Samson, Ala., when McLendon shot and killed the mother and daughter, Corinne, as well as his own uncle, cousin and nephew as they all sat on a porch. McLendon then went next door and shot his grandmother.

Myers also had her youngest child, 4-month-old Ella, and 4-year-old son Joshua with her at the time. A neighbor saved Ella, who suffered a gunshot to the leg. Joshua had hidden inside the house. 

McLendon already had shot his mother, Lisa McLendon, in the head and set on fire her and the home they shared with her three dogs, which he also killed. McLendon and his mother lived in Kingston, Ala., about 12 miles away from Samson, according to other news reports.  

Deputy Meyers told ABCNEWS.com reporters that someone called him and told him to get home as quickly as possible. 

The deputy had helped surround Michael McLendon at the Reliant Metal Factory in Geneva, where the gunman shot himself in the head and died. 

Law enforcement have not determined the exact reason for the shooting rampage.

Project Acorn expands Biloxi VA

Visit www.wlox.com to see plans for expansion of Veterans Administration in Biloxi. 

NOTE: Video subject to limited time period. 

TEXT WILL BE UPDATED AT FUTURE DATE.