Obama, other officials attend service for fallen miners

BECKLEY, W.Va. - In a service attended by more than 3,000 people, including President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, the 29 fallen miners from Upper Big Branch were remembered for more than just their work as coal miners, but as husbands, fathers, grandfathers, uncles and friends working to provide more for their families.

"All the hard work. All the hardship. All the time spent underground. It was all for their families. For a car in the driveway. For a roof overhead. For a chance to give their kids opportunities they never knew, and enjoy retirement with their wives. It was all in the hopes of something better," President Obama said in his eulogy to a solemn and tearful crowd Sunday. "These miners lived – as they died – in pursuit of the American dream."

Crowds gathered outside the Beckley-Raleigh County Convention Center in Beckley, W.Va. before the doors opened to the public at noon. A limited number of tickets were made available Saturday on a first-come, first-served basis. The service was the second tribute for the miners. A wreath-laying ceremony was hosted April 12 at the site of the miner's memorial statue on the grounds of the state Capitol in Charleston, W.Va.

The service Sunday titled "Hope and Healing" lasted for more than two hours and featured a number of musical performances, prayers and tributes, remarks by clergy, Gov. Joe Manchin and other dignitaries, including Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-West Virginia. Twenty-nine white crosses lined the stage along with pictures of the fallen miners. For more than 30 minutes, West Virginia First Lady Gayle Manchin read the names of the fallen miners as their families walked into the convention center with white miner's helmets and laid them on top of their respective crosses. The families also received a standing ovation from the crowd as the names were read aloud.

As they took the podium, state and national officials said words of praise and support for the miners, their families and the coal mining industry, but also spoke of the importance of finding answers to what exactly caused the explosion in Montcoal, W.Va.

The blast happened just after 3:30 p.m. April 5 during a shift change at a Massey Energy Subsidiary, Performance Coal Company. Twenty-nine miners were killed and two were injured.

"We cannot bring back the 29 men we lost. They are with the Lord now. Our task, here on Earth, is to save lives from being lost in another such tragedy," said Obama, who was often interrupted by loud cheers and applause from the crowd.  "To do what must be done, individually and collectively, to assure safe conditions underground. To treat our miners the way they treat each other, like family."

Gov. Manchin held back emotion as he told the crowd of mourners, "after today, we turn our focus on their legacy."

"I don't have the answers about why this has happened, but I promise you, we will find the answers," Manchin said.

Speaking after Manchin, Sen. Rockefeller said, "We will pass legislation to meet the requirements of those answers. And we will do it for you, the miners of West Virginia and America."

"Mining is a way of life in West Virginia, and we deeply cherish that."

Safety regulators have been working on a tentative theory that methane gas could have sparked the explosion by an-as-yet unidentified source. The blast marks the second West Virginia mining accident to occur in the past four years. In 2006, an explosion at the Sago Mine in Upshur County left 12 miners dead and one survivor. The explosion at Upper Big Branch is the worst U.S. mine disaster since 1972, when 91 miners died in a fire at the Sunshine Mine in Kellogg, Idaho.

The service concluded with the song "This Little Light of Mine" sang by the Martin Luther King Jr. Male Chorus. Light bulbs on the miner's helmets were each turned on in honor of the fallen miners.

Jessica Wintz can be contacted at wintz@marshall.edu.