When the T.C. Williams Titans took the field against West Springfield last Saturday, they wore a No. 1 on their helmets. They were honoring Sgt. DeForest L. Talbert, a 2000 graduate of T.C. Williams High School, a star football player and a hero, who was killed in Iraq last summer while serving his country.
Talbert’s jersey, with his No. 1 on it, was framed and given to his mother by principal John Porter; Secondary Training and Education Program principal Carolyn Lewis; and T.C.’s athletic director, A. K. Johnson.
During the presentation, on the field before the game, T.C. deputy athletic director Beverly Lawson, read a tribute to Talbert.
“He was a star athlete and a star person,” she said. “He didn’t always make the right choices in high school but had turned his life around. He attended West Virginia State College and joined the W.Va. Army National Guard to help pay his tuition. He will forever be our Titan and will stay in our hearts and in our memories.”
Talbert was serving with the Army National Guard’s First Battalion, 150th Armor Regiment from Beckley, W.Va. He was killed on July 31, in Baladruc, Iraq, when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle. He was 22.