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While the term "pillar of society" is often bandied about, Herb Stettler of Kasilof truly lives up the moniker. This past Saturday he was honored with a new vehicle for his tireless community service during a veteran's picnic at the National Guard Armory in Kenai.

"I feel great about it," said Stettler, in regard to the brown, 1975 Dodge 3/4-ton pick-up.

Many would recognize Stettler as a constant at any community event where the Color Guard makes an appearance. But beyond brandishing Old Glory during holiday parades and events honoring veterans, Stettler is also the service officer for both the American Legion Post No. 20 in Kenai and the Veteran's of Foreign Wars Post 10046 in Soldotna, and one of his duties is retrieving road-killed moose for veterans and other needy individuals.

"I do about six a year," he said. "I used to do eight to 12 a year, and got 15 in a year once, but now they have me down to six."

Stettler retrieves the animals at all times of day and night, loads them up, and brings them back to be butchered and have the meat wrapped. This is a lot of wear and tear on his vehicle and recently his truck succumbed to all the heavy loads hauled.

"I needed to make some major repairs to what I had," he said.

Rather than having him spend his own money to serve others, several American Legion members worked together to solve Stettler's problem.

"Member Gary Fischer donated the truck," said Tom Schanrock, vice commander of the post. "But basically everyone chipped in to do the work and pay for new parts. It was an American Legion family effort."

The vehicle had several upgrades for efficiently loading and unloading ungulates, included a reinforced bed with a removable corral-type tailgate and sides, a winch that can be used from the back of the cab or the back of the bed, and beefed-up springs and suspension work to handle the weight. Stettler was quite fond of this latter feature.

"That's good because I picked up three moose at once before," he said.

Stettler said the only thing he may modify on the vehicle would be to add a way to illuminate moose while he works on them in the dark.

"I may drill a couple of holes in the top of the cab to put a light up there," he said.

But other than that, Stettler said the new truck would be much better than fixing up his old one.

"This will be excellent for retrieving moose," he said. "I shouldn't have any trouble loading them at all."

Joseph Robertia can be reached at joseph.robertia@peninsulaclarion.com.