85-Year-Old Local Veteran Gets Veterans Day Surprise
Cleon Gharst, Army Veteran from Ninevah, receives new furnace and air conditioner through Marshall Mechanical’s ‘Heat For A Hero’
When the United States purchased Cleon Gharst’s family farm in the early 1940s to build Camp Atterbury, he didn’t know just how important the Army would be in his life.
Drafted in 1961, Gharst trained in Fort Hood, Texas to prepare for a conflict with Cuba. Serving two years and earning the rank of Sergeant First Class, Gharst completed two years of active service, highlighted by meeting President John F. Kennedy and being stationed at the same base that housed Elvis Presley a year prior.
And now, at 85-years-old, Johnson County heating, cooling, and plumbing company Marshall Mechanical is honoring Gharst’s service with a new, free furnace and air conditioner. Gharst was nominated to win the company’s “Heat For A Hero” campaign by his neighbor, Catherine Gleason.
Cleon and his wife, June, have been married for 65 years and have lived in Nineveh for 30 years.
“We know the value our nation’s veterans bring to our community, as we have three veterans on our own staff,” said Erik Marshall, owner of Marshall Mechanical Heating, Cooling & Plumbing in Franklin. “We’re blessed to be in a position to help our neighbors with this program.”
Marshall Mechanical’s own veterans will be a part of the installation crew, who will install the unit on Monday, November 11—Veterans Day.
“Heat for a Hero is just one way we can say thank you to a veteran for their service,” said Marshall. “Military service impacts people in different ways, and I think the most touching part of this program was reading the stories from people who nominated veterans from our community.”