Friends and family gather and honor Specialist Darrell Wayne Ship. (Photo by Louie Diaz)
By LOUIE DIAZ
editor@sbnewspaper.com
Surrounded by friends and family, the Harlingen-San Benito Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), Post 2410, just outside the San Benito City Limits, held a memorial ceremony for Specialist Darrell Wayne Shipp on Monday, Jan. 25.
Specialist Shipp, a Bronze Star recipient served in the Iraq War. He enlisted in the Army in 2005 and died in combat in 2007. The VFW Post was dedicated to Shipp after he died.
Trey Villela has been the head of the VFW Post 2410 for three years. While working there, he noticed the dedication to Shipp every time he entered the post, so he decided to dig up some information about the VFW Post.
“We started looking into it and discovered that the anniversary of his death was coming up, so we decided to do something,” said Villela. “We contacted the family, found out who they were, and invited them out here. It’s just a small token for his sacrifice to our nation.”
According to Darrell Shipp’s family, the VFW Post 2410 was dedicated to him about a month after he died in 2007. However, there was no memorial service done in his honor. This was the first ever ceremony dedicated to Darrell.
By his parent’s account, Darrell Shipp was a kind and caring person with aspirations of becoming a teacher after his Army service.
“He was very giving; he enjoyed playing music—he was in a band called Celebrate Tuesday—” said Regina Shipp, mother of Darrell Shipp. “He was also a bit of clown, he liked to scare his sister with his snake.”
“When he was supposed to get out of the Army, he was going to be a math teacher,” said Doyle Shipp, Darrell’s father.
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