{"id":112169,"date":"2015-05-26T21:23:21","date_gmt":"2015-05-27T03:23:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/george-was-one-of-many\/"},"modified":"2015-05-26T21:23:21","modified_gmt":"2015-05-27T03:23:21","slug":"george-was-one-of-many","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/george-was-one-of-many\/","title":{"rendered":"‘George was one of many’"},"content":{"rendered":"
Regan Umberger\/The Cortez Journal<br><br>Cyclists rode their bikes on the trail to the dedication. George was one of the nicest guys I ever met,\" said Scott Darling. \"He was always willing to help someone.\"
Regan Umberger\/The Cortez Journal<br><br>Cyclists rode their bikes on the trail to the dedication. George was one of the nicest guys I ever met,\" said Scott Darling. \"He was always willing to help someone.\"<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cA lot of soldiers have stepped up,\u201d said Geer, moments after a 60-acre preserve was named in honor of his son, Spc. George Raymond Geer. \u201cThey all signed on the line to volunteer, and George would have been very cognizant of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Geer specifically cited Army Staff Sgt. Thomas E. Vitagliano, 33, of Hartford, Conn. Both Geer and Vitagliano were killed in action when an improvised explosive device detonated inside a vehicle near their position in Ramadi, Iraq, on Jan. 17, 2005.<\/p>\n

\u201cGeorge was one of many,\u201d said Geer.<\/p>\n

More than a decade after his son\u2019s untimely death, Geer said he was overwhelmed by the city\u2019s effort to name an outdoor recreation area in honor of his son, especially on Memorial Day.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re just appreciative that this community helped to make George the man he was,\u201d said Geer. \u201cI\u2019m proud to call this home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Geer received the recovered cartridges spent during the 21-gun salute from the VFW honor guard.<\/p>\n

Riding his mountain bike to the dedication, Scott Darling said having an outdoor area named in honor of a former classmate and friend was an exceptional community memorial for such an outstanding man.<\/p>\n

\u201cGeorge was one of the nicest guys I ever met,\u201d said Darling. \u201cHe was always willing to help someone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Honor guard member Richard Kriner with the Montezuma County VFW Post 5231 added the natural area on County Road L was the first local memorial to be named after a specific military serviceman.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a very big honor,\u201d said Kriner.<\/p>\n

Cortez Councilor Orly Lucero said the dedication exemplified the area\u2019s tremendous support for the military and their families.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what I like most about this community,\u201d said Lucero. \u201cWe have a strong support for our troops.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blue Star Mother Masayo Weber said George Geer was the same age as her son, Joe, who continues to serve in the military. She too was proud to know that the city named the natural area after a fallen soldier.<\/p>\n

\u201cGeorge is like my son too,\u201d said Weber. \u201cThis is special.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Umberger\/The Cortez Journal<br><br>Cyclists rode their bikes on the trail to the dedication. George was one of the nicest guys I ever met,” said Scott Darling. “He was always willing to help someone.” \u201cA lot of soldiers have stepped up,\u201d said Geer, moments after a 60-acre preserve was named in honor of his son, Spc. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":112170,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6363],"tags":[188],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-112169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ds-news","tag-dolores-star"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112169\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112169"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=112169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}