Teams pay tribute to victims of Upper Big Branch blast

By Bill Archer Bluefield Daily Telegraph 23 May 2010

BLUEFIELD, WV — Trucks carrying mine rescue teams and their gear rolled into Bluefield early Saturday morning, and came to a stop at the Dickason Hall parking lot on the Bluefield State College campus.

“You can’t get here early enough to beat any of these guys here,” Bruce Mutter said. Mutter is an associate professor of architectural engineering technology at BSC as well as president and chief executive officer of the Center for Applied Research and Technology. “I got here at 5 a.m., but they were already here.”

At 6:45 a.m., before the fourth annual mine rescue competition sponsored by BSC and Welch Post #1, National Mine Rescue Association got started, members of the eight competing teams gathered outside Dickason Hall, set their coffee cups aside, removed their hats and held their own memorial service for their 29 brother coal miners who died in the April 5 explosion at the Upper Big Branch South Mine.

“Thank all of you,” The Reverend Gerald W. “Gerry” Pauley pastor of the Dorothy Assembly of God Church said. “I know most of you were down at Upper Big Branch. It’s because of people like you that events like this are possible. All of the time you spend away from your families at home ... it takes people with a willingness to make a sacrifice and a willingness to participate.”

Although there were about 75-80 mine rescue team members listening to Pauley’s brief service, he didn’t need a public address system to make himself heard. “I thank God for the people of West Virginia and this part of Virginia,” Pauley said. “When somebody is in need, you step up. Each and every one of you who were down on that river... we’re all thankful for you.

“You are our friends and neighbors,” Pauley said. “Coal mining is a difficult job but a good job. It’s a job we can all be proud of.” Pauley worked as a coal miner, but is now a district inspector with the West Virginia Office of Miner Health Safety and Training. His specialty is roof support systems with the District IV Office in Oak Hill. He read the first four verses of Chapter 14 in the Book of John.

“I know there is a God,” Pauley said. “The families and everybody who goes to my church, they’re all thankful for all of your efforts. I don’t care what anybody else says,  the people of this part of the world will stick together in times of trouble. Hopefully, there will never be another explosion like April 5.”

Pauley asked everyone to remove their hats again as he read the names of all 29 coal miners who died in the Upper Big Branch Mine explosion. The members of the mine rescue teams bowed their heads as Pauley read the names. Pauley asked for a moment of silence and then the service ended without additional comments as the eight teams returned to their staging areas to check their gear and prepare for the training problem they were about to solve. Rain that had held off through the morning started falling after the service. The teams didn’t seem to notice the rain as they walked in single-file to BSC’s Higginbotham Sports Complex work the problem.