By Walter Geiger ’Things always find their way home,’ Barnesville assistant city manager Tim Turner repeated multiple times as he returned three hard-earned medals to Patsy Rabuck. The medals, two Bronze Stars and a Purple Heart, belonged to her son, MSGT. Davy Nathaniel Weaver who was killed in action in Afghanistan over 12 years ago. The medals did, indeed, find their way home but they took a circuitous route. Weaver was killed on May 18, 2008 when his Humvee hit an IED in Qalat, Afghanistan. His body was brought here for a funeral with full military honors and he is buried at Lilla Baptist Church. The portion of Hwy. 36 East near the church is named in his honor. Weaver’s widow, Kathy, moved to Florida where she later died. The medals were apparently in a storage unit which was cleaned out by one of her children who moved to Indiana. Last month, a man bought the contents of a storage unit at auction in Fairhope, Indiana and found the medals. He took them to a nearby American Legion Post where veteran Charley Craft took over. He did an internet search on Weaver, connected him to Barnesville and called city hall. ’Christy Roberts answered the phone and told him I would know anybody in Barnesville. I called him back and we went from there. I went to school with Davy. Mr. Craft mailed the medals to me at city hall,’ Turner said. The medals arrived last week just in time for Veterans Day and Turner contacted Rabuck. They are now back where they should be with family members. Weaver earned his first Bronze Star for exceptional conduct in a combat zone 2007-2008. The second was awarded for courage under enemy fire April-May 2008. The Purple Heart was award posthumously for the fatal wounds he received in the IED attack. Rabuck, thought to be Lamar County’s only living Gold Star Mother, said she will cherish the medals and pass them on when the time comes. ’They”ll stay in the family this time,’ she concluded.
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