Bench dedicated in honor of heroic Korean War soldier

VINCENNES, Ind. (AP) – A group of southwestern Indiana residents who graduated from high school in 1949 have erected a granite bench to honor a classmate killed during the Korean War during an act of heroism.

The bench dedicated Wednesday outside Vincennes’ Lincoln High School by a group of men now in the 80s pays homage to Bob “Ace” Edwards.

Edwards graduated from the school in 1949, but died in September 1951 during the Korean War when he threw himself on an enemy grenade that landed near a large group of soldiers.

Classmate Ken Gremore tells the Vincennes Sun-Commercial Edwards’ selfless act killed him but saved his comrades.

He says Edwards died as a young man and never had any children “but what he did allowed those other men to go on living.”