OPINION: Veteran should be remembered how he lived

Family and friends of Clair C. Chaffin said they hope the World War II veteran will be remembered more for how he lived than how he died.
Chaffin, 83, of Archer, Fla., was shot during an attempted armed robbery June 8 at the Thunderbird Inn in Florence and died hours later. He was on his way to Virginia to meet with other members of the 4th Marine Division Association, and had stopped for the night Sunday in Florence as he’d done many times before.
And while those in the Florence County Sheriff’s Office who investigated the crime couldn’t return Chaffin safely to his family and friends, they could pay their respects to him on behalf of our community, which is dismayed that something so terrible had happened to a man just briefly visiting the Pee Dee.
It was appropriate for Florence County Sheriff Kenney Boone and other investigators to make the trip to Gainesville, Fla., for Chaffin’s funeral, honoring his family’s request to be there — especially because Powers Aviation officials had donated the means for them to do so.
“A decorated veteran, who served his country and gave his life — a majority of his life — for this country, 83 years old and had been through what he had to go through and then had to come back to this country and die like he did, it’s unacceptable,” Boone said.
We feel the same way.
It’s difficult to grasp the idea that a man who had by all accounts lived his live honorably had died in such a senseless way. Chaffin dropped out of high school in the 10th grade to join the Navy and “even the score” for the death of his two brothers, Elmer and Kenneth, in the war. He landed at Iwo Jima on Feb. 19, 1945, having fought there and at Saipan. He later received the Silver Star for his heroism in saving, treating and evacuating eight wounded Marines trapped in a free-fire zone between Allied forces and enemy lines on Saipan.
Following his return from the war, Chaffin attended junior college in St. Petersburg, Fla., majoring in building construction. He spent the next 54 years coordinating and supervising major Department of Defense and Veterans Administration construction projects in Alabama, Indiana and throughout Florida, according to the September newsletter of the Gator Detachment of the Marine Corps League Inc. in Gainesville, Fla. In recognition of his educational sacrifice to serve his country, then-Gov. Jeb Bush awarded Chaffin a full high school diploma from the state of Florida in 2004.
But more importantly, Chaffin was a father, grandfather, uncle and friend. That’s reason enough for law enforcement officers to make every effort to bring his killers — and all others who prey on the innocent — to justice. Perhaps that’s the best demonstration of respect a crime victim can receive.

— Unsigned editorials represent the views of this newspaper. Editorial Board members are Mark Laskowski (regional publisher), James Bennett (interim regional editor), Sam Bundy (sports editor), Kimberly Ginfrida (news editor), David Johnson (regional circulation director), Charles Tomlinson (Lake City News & Post editor) and Jackie Torok (metro editor).