WWII veteran A.C. Glover, 87, of Stafford served abroad the USS Breeman, which transported 30 tons of Polish gold to America. /PETER CIHELKA / THE FREE LANCE–STAR

BY RUSTY DENNEN / THE FREE LANCE-STAR

Most people are lucky enough to handle maybe a few ounces of gold over the course of a lifetime.

But what would it be like to be in the presence of 30 tons of the precious metal?

Just ask Adam C. Glover. As a 17-year-old deckhand serving on a Navy destroyer escort during World War II, he helped move a small mountain of Polish gold from Africa to New York in a top-secret mission to keep it out of the hands of the Nazis.

Glover, now 86, recalled the unlikely March 1944 adventure in a recent interview.

“We pulled into Dakar,” a port in French West Africa, “and there was a whole convoy of trucks coming in,” said Glover, who lives in Grafton Village in southern Stafford County.

There were so many men on the gangplank that, “They looked like ants, all of them carrying one box on their shoulder,” he said.

Glover, and the rest of the crew aboard the USS Breeman, knew they were on an urgent mission, but not what the cargo was.

“The first indication we got was when they started bringing depth charges and putting them in the sleeping compartments,” to make room for gold in the ammunition storage area, he said.

“We found out from the first guy who came aboard. He said it was gold. It was a big surprise just how much it was.”

Glover’s reaction: “Do my job.” Any thought beyond that never entered his mind, he says.

Besides, he said, smiling, “Everybody was standing around with guns. Where are you going to take it?”

Glover helped move the boxes onto the ship—one of two destroyer escorts dispatched to pick up the cargo. The other was the USS Bronstein.

MILLIONS IN GOLD

Navy Lt. Cmdr. Sheldon Kinney, commander of the Bronstein, described the scene in “Tin Can Gold Rush,” his postwar account to the U.S. Naval Institute:

“Aboard the ships, ammunition was being shifted to make space for the heavy load. Each box was about 12 inches deep, 24 inches long, and 10 inches wide. Within each, four gold bars were packed in sawdust.”

The boxes were secured with iron bands and sealed “with the ‘BP’ of the Bank of [Poland],” Kinney wrote. The value of the gold was estimated at the time to be about $65 million.

Glover says it took hours to stow the crates, then the ship slipped out of port that night for the three-day voyage to New York.

They steered clear of the Cape Verde Islands, off Africa’s West Coast, to avoid detection by German agents known to report on Allied ship movements there.

On the third day, the flotilla detected an enemy submarine, but the Breeman and Bronstein—both sub-hunters—didn’t pursue it. Their orders were to proceed directly to New York City.

Glover managed to get a copy of the ship’s orders, marked “Top Secret,” from Vice Adm. William A. Glassford, head of the American Mission in Dakar, to Breeman’s captain, Lt. Cmdr Edward N.W. Hunter.

It read, in part: “Receive from, with receipt to, Mr. Stephan Michalski, Director of the Bank of Poland, an agent of the Polish Government, a shipment declared to contain gold.”

And, “Upon arrival at destination deliver the shipment to the Federal Reserve Bank ” in New York.

On April 3, 1944 when the Breeman arrived in New York Harbor, Glover says, there was a big welcoming party, so to speak.

“There was a battalion of Marines, Army, New York police, and probably Secret Service, there on a Saturday night.”

Since the Federal Reserve Bank was not open, “We had to sit there with all that money” overnight, he recalled. The next day, it was unloaded and the Breeman left for Tunisia to resume its sub-hunting duties.

A LONG JOURNEY

According to Kinney’s report, and other historical accounts, the saga of the gold began in September 1939, with the Nazis’ unprovoked attack on Poland, located on the Baltic Sea between Germany and Russia. One prime objective: secure gold reserves to fund its war machine.

As the Germans advanced, the directors of the Bank of Poland had gold loaded onto trucks bound for Romania, a neighboring country to the south.

Over the coming months, the gold went through Lebanon, where it was loaded on French ships, then sent by rail to Paris. As the Nazis closed in on the French capital in the spring of 1940, the gold was moved again, to Casablanca in North Africa, then to the jungle outside Dakar, where it was stored until the American ships picked it up.

The gold was returned to the Polish government after World War II. But by then, parts of Poland were annexed by the Soviets, so the efforts by the Allies to save the treasury for the Polish people were largely in vain, according to postwar records.

Glover said he doesn’t want the true story of the Polish gold to be mistaken for the fictional story of a gold heist depicted in the 1970 film “Kelly’s Heroes,” in which some World War II GIs conspire to steal a cache of gold stolen by the Germans in France.

“The [real] gold was never captured,” Glover said. While the gold shipment was the most unusual mission for the the USS Breeman, Glover said, the ship spent more than two years hunting down subs in the Atlantic Ocean from Africa to northern Russia.

On one wartime voyage, Glover was injured after the ship encountered a German submarine.

“We had sunk the sub and some prisoners came off a life raft,” onto the Breeman, he recalled.

During the commotion, he walked under the ship’s 3-inch gun, which the captain had ordered to fire and scuttle the raft.

The concussion from the muzzle blast damaged Glover’s eardrums, and he was nearly knocked overboard.

“They got infected,” Glover said of his ears, and he was hospitalized three times. He still has difficulty hearing.

The Breeman rescued 32 German sailors during that engagement in mid-1945.

HARROWING MOMENT

Glover’s ship was part of a battle group formed around the carrier USS Block Island, initially, then the five destroyer escorts of the group transferred to another air-carrier group led by the USS Card.

Another harrowing moment came when the Breeman was hit by a huge wave during a storm in the North Atlantic.

The 306-foot-long vessel rolled 76 degrees, so far that water got into the smokestack.

“After the ship came back up and everybody realized they were alive, it took care of all the atheists on board,” he said with a chuckle.

“Most of the time, everybody was seasick. You were on duty four hours, off eight. If you had battle stations [alarm] when you were asleep, you’d get your butt up and go. When you’re 17 years old, you do what you are told and get your a– up. It was very exciting.”

The Breeman, he said, was credited with sinking two enemy subs.

Glover’s Navy career ended in March 1946. The Breeman’s last voyage was to Green Cove Springs, Fla., on the St. Johns River, where that ship and many other destroyer escorts were decommissioned. The Breeman was sold to China, and ultimately, sunk to create a dock in Taiwan, Glover said.

Only one of hundreds of destroyer escorts built during the war remains. The USS Slater is a floating exhibit at the Destroyer Escort Historical Museum in Albany, N.Y.

Two of Glover’s brothers, James and Gene Glover, served in the Army during World War II.

Glover still sees a few of his buddies from the ship during annual reunions. But he said, sadly, only seven of the crew of more than 300 are left.

Glover says most people have no idea about the Navy’s role in safekeeping the gold of Poland, “but it’s still a hot topic when we get together.”

Rusty Dennen: 540/374-5431

rdennen@freelancestar.com

A Stafford man who had been facing the possibility of a mandatory life sentence was convicted of rape Friday.

Christopher Anthony Dotson, 22, entered an Alford plea to the rape charge, meaning he does not admit guilt but acknowledges the evidence is sufficient for a conviction. He was also convicted of a probation violation.

As part of a plea agreement worked out by prosecutor Tara Mooney and defense attorneys Eugene Frost and Tara Beth Coleman, Dotson will face a maximum penalty of just over 30 years to serve when he is sentenced Aug. 22.

Under the statute, Dotson was facing before the plea, he would have gotten an automatic life sentence if convicted.

That’s because Dotson already had a sexual offense conviction involving a minor, a 12-year-old girl.

A jury trial on the rape charge had been scheduled for next week.

According to Mooney, the victim in the latest conviction was raped on April 10, 2012, at Dotson’s home in Stafford. It was her 16th birthday.

The girl didn’t know Dotson, Mooney said, but went to his home with a group of teenagers and engaged in underage drinking.

Mooney said the girl got extremely drunk on tequila and other alcohol and eventually found herself alone in a bedroom with Dotson.

The girl told police that Dotson, whom she was not interested in, undressed her and laughed when she told him to stop. The girl said he then held her down and raped her.

The other teens later took her home, and she was vomiting and crying as they let her out of the car. She immediately told her mother that she had been raped.

Dotson, whose probation called for him to not be around juveniles or drink alcohol, later adamantly denied having any sexual contact with the victim.

But DNA recovered from the girl during a hospital test proved that Dotson had lied.

Frost said that had the case gone to trial, Dotson would have claimed that the sex was consensual.

Keith Epps: 540/374-5404

kepps@freelancestar.com

TODAY

“Remembering World War II Patriotism,” Historic Kenmore, 1201 Washington Ave. See the grounds of Kenmore through the eyes of a

World War II visitor, an exhibit about Kenmore during World War II by UMW students, theater productions depicting vignettes from Kenmore during World War II, house tours, tea, gingerbread. 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. $10 adults, $5 students, under age 6 free.

Memorial Day Events, George Washington’s Ferry Farm, Stafford. “Wartime Reminiscences with the Lintons”—a question-and-answer with the Linton family highlighting their childhoods growing up at Ferry Farm during World War II, 11 a.m.; “Marketing the War: The Role of Propaganda in World War II”—a presentation by archaeologist Joseph Blondino about the use of propaganda by the United States, Germany and other nations to influence their citizens on the home front to support the war, 3 p.m.; group of re-enactors dedicated to an authentic portrayal of G.I.s and combat engineers during World War II and archaeology site open all day. Fun activities throughout the day on victory gardens, rationing, toys and games, USO dances and American life during the 1940s. 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Adults $8, students $4, under age 6 free.

Fourth annual Fredericksburg City and Confederate Cemetery Tour. Walking tour led by local amateur historian Dan “Big French” Janzegers. The tour covers notables, military and local citizens’ burials. New research from the past year will be highlighted. 6:30–8 p.m. Donations to the Fredericksburg City Cemetery welcome.

18th annual Luminary, Fredericksburg National Cemetery, Sunken Road and Lafayette Boulevard. Taps will play every 30 minutes. 15,300 candles will be lit, historians will tell the stories of soldiers who died. Shuttle service will be available from the UMW parking lot at the corner of William Street and Sunken Road.

8–11 p.m. Free.

Thunder for the Cause, Fredericksburg Fairgrounds, Motorcycle rodeos, bikini contest, car and bike show. thunderforthecause.com.

SUNDAY

Band of America’s Few, National Museum of the Marine Corps, Triangle. Patriotic selections in celebration of Memorial Day. 10:30 a.m. to noon. Free.

Thunder for the Cause, Fredericksburg Fairgrounds. Ride to Washington.

MONDAY

Memorial Day Ceremony, “Memorial to Our Fallen Heroes,” intersection of Barton, Liberty and George streets. Speakers, music, historic flags. By Fredericksburg Area Veterans Council. 10:45 a.m. Free.

Memorial Day Ceremony, Fredericksburg National Cemetery. Historian, veteran, and city planner Erik Nelson will be keynote speaker. The ceremony will be preceded by a procession through the streets, led by the re-created 23rd United States Colored Troops. The procession will depart from Shiloh Baptist Church (Old Site), 801 Sophia St., at 11:15 a.m.

147th Memorial Day Observance, Fredericksburg Confederate Cemetery. Period music, brief talks on “Tactics and Technology at the Battle of Fredericksburg” and “Lee’s Die-hards at Sundown, May 6, 1864.”

10 a.m.

Memorial Day Ceremony, Spotsylvania Confederate Cemetery. Hosted by Fredericksburg Chapter, United Daughters of the Confederacy. 2 p.m. Volunteers needed starting at 9 a.m. May 25, when the Rev. Beverly Tucker Lacy Camp and the Matthew Fontaine Maury Camp, Sons of Confederate Veterans, will place flags at the cemetery.

Rappahannock Pops Orchestra: “An Outdoor Commemoration with the Pops,” Mary Washington Hospital, Ambulatory Care entrance.

6 p.m. Free. Rain location: Grace Church of Fredericksburg, 1141 Heatherstone Drive, Spotsylvania.

Memorial service, Aquia Episcopal Church, 2938 Jefferson Davis Highway, Stafford. Service for three War of 1812 vets (Edwin C. Moncure, John Moncure and William Widie Robertson) buried at the church. There will be a presentation on the history of Stafford and the War of 1812. 2 p.m.

There’s a new chief manning the controls of one of America’s biggest battlefield parks.

Lucy Lawliss, a Fredericksburg resident, has quietly stepped into the shoes of Russ Smith, former superintendent of Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park. Smith departed earlier this month to become the first superintendent of the newly crated First State National Monument in Delaware, his home state.

As the local park’s acting superintendent, until the National Park Service brass chooses Smith’s permanent successor at summer’s end, Lawliss is overseeing the 7,000-plus acres of the park and its four major Civil War battlefields.

She will be greeting visitors tonight at the 18th annual luminaria light show in Fredericksburg National Cemetery—the area’s most popular Memorial Day weekend event—starting at 8 p.m.

Lucy Lawliss

Lawliss is already a familiar figure to many in the region. She has served as superintendent of George Washington Birthplace National Monument in Westmoreland County on Virginia’s Northern Neck and Thomas Stone National Historic Site in Charles County, Md.—two Colonial-era sites—since 2008.

She has had a passion for history and historic places since a second-grade trip to Colonial Williamsburg, which sparked her lifelong interest in historic preservation.

A member of the American Society of Landscape Architects, Lawliss earned a bachelor’s degree in landscape architecture from the University of Georgia in 1979 and a master’s degree with a certificate in historic preservation in 1992.

In her 22-year career with the National Park Service, she has helped develop its Cultural Landscape Inventory and written many articles and reports, including “Preserving Battlefield Terrain: Technologies for Earthworks Management,” which won an award from the Association for Preservation Technology.

Lawliss also co-edited a multi-award-winning book, “The Master List of Design Projects of the Olmsted Firm (1857–1979),” about the work of the landscape architectural firm of Frederick Law Olmsted and his sons.

Olmsted is perhaps best-known for designing New York City’s Central Park. During the Civil War, Olmsted organized medical services for Union soldiers.

The Fredericksburg area park’s luminaria program, which is free, runs through 11 p.m. Should it rain, it will be held on Sunday.

The luminaria—lit candles placed inside paper bags and set beside each gravestone by Boy Scouts and other volunteers—pay tribute to the cemetery’s American soldiers who gave their lives for this country.

To honor them, members of the Mattaponi and Aquia Districts of the Boy Scouts of America and the Commonwealth Council Girl Scouts of the USA will light 15,300 candles—one for each soldier buried in the historic, hilltop cemetery. Throughout the evening, a bugler will play taps every 30 minutes.

To commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Chancellorsville, historians posted throughout the cemetery will tell stories of soldiers who died in that days-long fight.

Fredericksburg National Cemetery is at Sunken Road and Lafayette Boulevard. To visit during the luminaria event, park in the University of Mary Washington lot at William Street and Sunken Road. The Fredericksburg Trolley will shuttle visitors between the parking area and the national cemetery, which is just a few blocks away.

Pets are not permitted in the cemetery. Have questions? Call 540/373-6122.

Clint Schemmer: 540/368-5029

cschemmer@freelancestar.com

Chris Ruff of Educational Enrichment for Young People plays the cease fire beat while portraying a militia drummer during a living history presentation for Riverview Elementary School’s Memorial Day celebration in Spotsylvania County on Friday, May 24, 2013. (PETER CIHELKA / THE FREE LANCE-STAR)

BY LINDLEY ESTES / THE FREE LANCE–STAR

Most of the students at Riverview Elementary School live near or on battlefields in Spotsylvania County, and on Friday they learned from living historians and veterans how local military history fits into the national remembrance of Memorial Day. 

One of those students, 8-year-old Luke Sielicki, wore a camouflage U.S. Army soldier’s uniform to school for the event.

His father served in the Army working with helicopters, and Luke said that he also wants to serve when he grows up.

“I think it’s pretty cool how they serve,” he said. “It’s neat how they help us.”

Vietnam War veteranDennis Mroczkowski demonstrates how he used a compass during the war to third graders during a living history presentation for Riverview Elementary School’s Memorial Day celebration in Spotsylvania County on Friday, May 24, 2013. Mroczkowski also served in Desert Storm, Somalia, Haiti, Croatia, Bosnia and Iraq.

Stenger and his wife, Allison Stenger, hold events at Spotsylvania schools up to seven times a year to explain national military holidays and historical events to students.

Principal Dianne Holmes said the events also help to fulfill the third grade Standards of Learning requirement of recognizing the significance of Veterans and Memorial Days.

Originally, it was to be held outdoors and include active duty military members, first responders and additional living historians. But the weather forced the event, in a truncated form, inside.

Luke and his classmates from Meadow Davis’ third-grade class listened to retired Col. Dennis Mroczkowski, 66, a Vietnam War veteran, talk about his experiences on the battlefield.

Mroczkowski was an artillery forward observer and told the students how he scouted out the enemy and told the artillery how to best adjust their fire.

He showed the students the map he carried along with him in Vietnam, the books that were issued to him during the war, his uniform and binoculars that he acquired in Kuwait on duty.

The students passed around the binoculars and Luke remarked that from the library he could see all the way into the lunchroom.

He tried to put those lost during the war into perspective by giving the students the raw, large numbers of the servicemen who died.

“Fifty-eight thousand Americans died in Vietnam,” he said. “That’s a lot of people to lose.”

He asked the students how many Vietnamese they thought perished in the war.

Students shouted out “5,000,” “100,000” and “1 million” before Mroczkowski informed them that the Vietnamese governments estimation was 2 million dead.

He informed that that the conflict in Vietnam lasted for nearly 30 years.

“When you’re six years old, 30 years is an improbable amount of time to grasp,” he said about explaining war to elementary students.

A living historian, Chris Ruff, 36, of Lillington, N.C., provided perspective on the revolutionary war for the students.

He works at the National Museum for the Army Reserve at Fort Bragg and said it is hard to explain to the elementary age group what warfare is and explain why America has armies.

“I want to impart the idea of teamwork to them,” he said. “And of leadership.”

He portrayed a drummer during the event and explained why it was important for the army to stay in line and in step.

The students were able to hear different drum commands and touch his snare drum.

Nine-year-old third-grader Archie Anderson was able to touch the drum.

“It was so cool,” Archie said.

Classmate 9-year-old Bryce Carr drummed as well but said his favorite part was the binoculars.

“It’s interesting to hear the stories about people who served the country,” he said.

Joey Ferguson, 9, in the third grade, said he was able to relate the presentation because his father served with the Marines in Iraq and his grandfather served in Vietnam.

Another time portrayed during the Memorial Day event was World War II.

Deter and Allison Stenger portrayed a U.S. Army paratrooper and a 1940s-era woman.

Students from Bevin Arnold’s third-grade class asked Stenger about her clothes.

She explained that women wore victory curls in their hair to support the war effort and added suspenders to dresses to make them more utilitarian.

She also explained how typewriters work and how they were used on the front.

One student, 9-year-old Skyler Buchanan, asked about the seeds women would have used in their victory gardens.

“I think it was really, really, really good,” said Skyler, who also said she now knew the difference between Memorial and Veterans Days.

Stenger explained that they would have purchased the initial seeds, but in subsequent years would save seeds from their crops. She also told them how the gardens also supported the war effort.

“It’s important for them to understand what Memorial Day is about,” she said. “Death is a touchy subject with this age group, but they really do get leadership, honor and what makes someone join the service.”

Lindley Estes: 540/735-1976

lestes@freelancestar.com

ALEXANDRIA—James Douglas Manring, a former fixture in the Fredericksburg region for his involvement with youth, was sentenced Friday to serve 14 years in federal prison.

U.S District Judge Claude M. Hilton gave him the minimum sentence possible under federal sentencing guidelines.

Manring, 54, appeared in court in a green prison jumpsuit, his graying, wavy hair down below his shoulders.

“Words are not enough to express the amount of shame, remorse,” he told the judge during a hearing that lasted less than 10 minutes. “Words cannot express the amount of frustration I have for myself about poor decisions, poor actions in the past.”

In January, Manring pleaded guilty in federal court to two counts of producing child pornography and had faced between 10 and 20 years in prison on each charge.

Hilton gave him 14 years on both charges but ordered the time served concurrently. He also ordered him to be under supervision for three years after release and to register as a sex offender. He is to undergo treatment or monitoring in a sex offender treatment program required by the probation department and to have his computer use monitored.

Prosecutors had recommended that Manring receive a 17-year sentence, consistent with the high end of sentencing guidelines, saying it would provide “punishment, deterrence and protection of the public.”

The defense had asked for the 10-year minimum, noting that he would be 64 years old by the time of his release and that the men in his family have a history of dying in their 60s.

Manring lived in southern Stafford County from 2000 until his arrest in November. He has been held in federal custody since then.

He came to the attention of federal authorities as part of a U.S. Postal Service investigation related to mailing materials involving sexual exploitation of children, a federal affidavit states.

Between April 2010 and February 2011, he purchased about 46 videos depicting the genitals and pubic areas of minor boys, according to prosecution documents filed in federal court. Those videos were mailed to his Stafford home.

However, his charges involve videos he produced between 1996 and 1999 while working at a preschool in Japan, court records state.

The videos, seized during a search of his Stafford home, show Manring sexually abusing at least five boys and two girls, according to court records. Those seven children were among at least 10 he videotaped playing naked.

The children in the videos were believed to be about 5 years old, according to the sentencing recommendation filed in court by Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Alicia J. Yass.

Yass said Friday that investigators have not yet been able to identify the victims but that they would all have suffered lifelong harm psychologically. She reserved the right to return to court within 90 days if they can be located and wish to seek restitution.

In her written sentencing recommendation, Yass said Manring “needs to be kept away from children” because his actions were “not an isolated incident” and that he “exploited his position of authority and trust as a teacher to sexually abuse the very young children in his care, and to produce his child pornography covertly.”

She noted that he continued teaching children from the time of his crimes until his arrest.

After returning to America, Manring worked at Fredericksburg-area preschools, taught private music lessons to children at his home and at local businesses, and was active in martial arts at a North Stafford facility.

However, a federal investigator said earlier this year she found no videos in Manring’s house that depicted abuse of any children from the Fredericksburg area.

Defense Attorney Dickson J. Young of Fairfax submitted eight letters from Manring’s supporters. Those came from his younger brother, two older sisters, his sister-in-law, friends and parents of former students.

His family expressed shock over the charges, concern for his safety in prison and suggested he suffers from a mental illness.

Young noted that Manring is 5 feet tall and 110 pounds and grew up being teased because of his size.

Joseph J. Kane, owner of BANG! Music in North Stafford, wrote a 3-page typed letter that he and his wife, Maryann, signed in support of Manring.

Kane said the family has known Manring for 30 years, that he was an “honorary uncle” to their two sons and that neither boy was harmed.

Kane said he was shocked by the charges and that Manring told him “he felt controlled by the allure of something he despised.”

Manring “held no compromised view of morality regarding pedophilia. He said it was wrong and he knows it harms the innocent,” Kane wrote.

Kane and Manring’s family asked that he serve his sentence where he could get mental health treatment.

Young argued for that in his written recommendation to the court.

He suggested that “with extremely close monitoring and supervision, and participation in the right kind of treatment, Doug Manring’s risk for recidivism is very low.”

Pamela Gould: 540/735-1972

pgould@freelancestar.com

If you hear horns honking in Partlow, if you hear spontaneous singing in Ruby, if you hear shouts of joy from Lake Anna and howls of delight from Passapatanzy Creek, it can mean only one thing: The prayers of country boys and girls from Post Oak to White Oak have been answered. Bocephus is coming to Fredericksburg.

Celebrate Virginia Live announced Friday morning that Bocephus, aka Hank Williams Jr., will play the summer concert series Saturday, July 20.

“The community should feel a certain measure of pride,” said Celebrate Virginia Live concert promoter Dave Peterson, “It’s like we’ve arrived.”

Perhaps that statement needs a little more explanation.

Williams is one of the most successful country music artists, ever. He has had seven No. 1 country albums, not including greatest-hits packages. He has had top-10 albums in six different decades. He has had nine No. 1 country songs and dozens of top-10 hits.

Perhaps more important than those record-sales milestones was the attitude he sold in the ’70s and ’80s. He is the son of one of the most significant American musicians who ever lived and spent the early part of his career emulating his father.

But in the ’70s and ’80s, Williams bucked the smooth country trends of Nashville by embracing Southern rock and singing about his increasingly hedonistic lifestyle. He gained a reputation as a powerhouse live performer and penned blue-collar anthems with mass appeal.

His fame continued even after the hits slowed. For two decades, he sang the intro to “Monday Night Football,” until ESPN dropped him in 2011 after Williams made an analogy to Adolf Hitler in discussing President Barack Obama.

He built an enormous audience—one that is still fiercely loyal today.

But none of those facts can explain the massive popularity that he still enjoys, even after a couple of decades out of the mainstream country music spotlight. The most important fact about Williams might be this: Last night, people from six to 60 started their weekends with a Bocephus song.

Unlike many country hit-makers from the 1980s, Williams has continued to find popularity with young audiences. Hits like “A Country Boy Can Survive” and “Family Tradition” still resonate with a wide swath of country fans and still draw new fans into the Williams universe.

Peterson said Williams is one of the few artists who can sustain an entire concert of hit songs.

“If you can do 70 minutes of songs that everyone knows, then you’ve got the catalog to play for the rest of your life,” Peterson said. “He hit that.”

Peterson has had success at Celebrate Virginia Live with country and Southern rock bands, so it stands to reason that one of the titans of both genres will draw a large crowd.

“It seems like a good fit,” he said.

Jonas Beals: 540/368-5036

jbeals@freelancestar.com

WANT TO GO?

WHAT: Hank Williams Jr.

WHERE: Celebrate Virginia Live, Central Park near Wegmans

WHEN: Saturday, July 20, at 5 p.m.

COST: $26.50 to $110

INFO: celebratevirginialive.com; hankjr.com

Thanks largely to an alert church member, four people suspected of conning King George County churches out of money were arrested Thursday, police said.

King George Sheriff Steve Dempsey said the arrests occurred outside Two Rivers Baptist Church on State Route 3.

The incident began at the end of a Wednesday night service when a woman walked in and requested help in paying her rent.

Dempsey said the woman told church officials that she was about to be evicted and needed a relatively small amount of money. She was told that the church wouldn’t give her money directly but would be willing to talk with her landlord.

The woman gave a name of a man and an address on James Madison Parkway in King George. The man was called, and arrangements were made for him to come to the church at 10 a.m. Thursday to pick up the money.

Meanwhile, a woman from the church did an Internet search using the name that had been provided. She found a news article from last year in which the man, Joseph Harold Artz, had been arrested along with his wife for stealing Easter Seal jars from a CVS pharmacy in Culpeper. The woman became more suspicious after checking the address of the rental that was provided and learned that it did not exist.

“She did an excellent job,” Dempsey said of the church member.

The Sheriff’s Office was called, and detectives Jimmy Simmons and Mike Thompson were waiting near the church Thursday morning. A 2001 maroon Saturn with four people in it showed up and, after $40 was given to a man who went into the church, detectives arrested all four.

Artz, 42, Jennifer Marie Harrison, 38, David Lee Frazier, 52, and Donna Sue Frazier, 47, all of Warrenton, were charged with obtaining money by false pretenses and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Dempsey said the subsequent investigation showed that the group had been going to churches daily to get money to pay for drugs and other needs. They had been to four other churches in King George alone on Wednesday; it was not immediately clear if they’d gotten money from any of them.

Keith Epps: 540/374-5404

kepps@freelancestar.com

Steve Carrington Durham Jr., 28, of Brick, N.J., has been charged with one count of possession with intent to distribute a Schedule I or Schedule II narcotic. He is being held in the Rappahannock Regional Jail.

According to a release from the Sheriff’s Office, Detective Nick Chiappini of the Special Investigations Unit began an investigation early this month regarding the shipment of a large amount of heroin that was to be picked up in Stafford and then delivered south of the Fredericksburg area.

Late on the night of May 8, the release says, Durham was stopped in his vehicle in the Courthouse Road area of the county. He was traveling with a woman who was later released and not charged.

A K-9 unit – Master Deputy Scott Myers and his dog, Khaos – were called to the scene and Khaos alerted police to the trunk of Durham’s car, police said. A search of the trunk uncovered about two kilograms of heroin with a street value estimated at $270,000, police said.

Police say the investigation remains active and that more charges are likely.

Members of the Drug Enforcement Administration as well as other local law enforcement agencies participated in the investigation.

Police say that when Durham was arrested, he was out on bond for a similar offense that they say occurred in New Jersey about a week earlier.

Earlier this month, two Culpeper men were arrested on heroin charges as police said they were attempting to crack down on what they say is a growing problem in the area.

Heroin, according to Culpeper police officials, has led to nine overdoses and two deaths in the area in recent weeks.

Are you ready for some Hank Williams Jr.?

Even if you’re not, now is not too early to start preparing. We suspect his arrival in Fredericksburg on Saturday, July 20, will draw quite a few of his “rowdy friends” to the Job.com Pavilion at Celebrate Virginia Live.

The concert was announced this week as part of the Grammy Award winner’s summer tour, which is promoting his latest album, “Old School, New Rules.”

Tickets will start at $26.50 and go on sale next Friday, May 31, at 10 a.m. online at celebratevirginialive.com and in person at Legends Sports Grill in Cosner’s Corner.

“I love to get out in front of my loyal fans and making my mark on this great country,” Williams said in a press release announcing the tour.

Some of his biggest hits include “Whiskey Bent and Hell Bound,” “Old Habits,” “All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight,” and “A Country Boy Can Survive,” and “Family Tradition.”

Other upcoming shows at Celebrate Virginia Live include Sheryl Crow (July 12); Scotty McCreery (July 26); Trace Adkins (Aug. 9); and Bret Michaels (Aug. 23).

More shows will be announced soon.