This Memorial Day I’ve been invited to a community near Jamestown to speak on the value and meaning of this solemn date on our calendar. I was in the same community about a month ago as an invited guest to initiate and provide the military traditional toast for a veterans gala event.
The toast is a time-honored military tradition, one of dignity and respect.
As I stood in front of a crowd of more than 200 people, one individual felt he was so privileged, so engrossed in his own right to freedom of speech, that he disregarded all others in attendance and disrespected me and himself by interrupting and asking, after I was properly introduced, “Who are you?”
With no respect for military tradition or respect for the veteran community gathered there that evening for fellowship and to enjoy the evening, this individual, a veteran, sought the low ground.
Words like “heritage” and “patriotism” get thrown around a lot. Too often I find myself having to explain the meaning behind what Memorial Day means beyond graveyards and misguided ideas and concepts that get confused and entangled with Veterans Day. Often, my audience is much like this fellow. Full of righteous bravado he came over to me twice later in the evening to bully his way into getting me to acknowledge his far-right ideas.
Making America “Great Again” is a boot full of duffle bag dirt! America is the greatest nation in the world today — PERIOD! With all of our ills and distorted history, flocks of people still seek out our hallowed shores. As much as people protest, there aren’t
crowds and droves of people seeking to leave this country ... quite the contrary.
Beneath the soil, all around this great country and abroad, lay the remains of heroes — warriors and true patriots. From above ground, regardless of the headstones or cemetery, the remains of those who lie there all look the same from the surface.
Decoration Day (before it became known as Memorial Day) was meant to acknowledge our sameness after the American Civil War.
Military service members are acknowledged on this day. Some gave the ultimate sacrifice in the defense of our country and in support of the rights many tend to take for granted. Some like me gave their entire adult lives serving, while some just did their duty and returned home, leav-
ing this world proud to have served.
Too many times in my life growing up in America’s inner city there has been this movement and that movement — Back to Africa, Black Power, Black Panthers. My Black life matters only when it matters to some political agenda. “Brothers” who want to “high five” me in the daylight and rob me at night. There is always someone dressing up to play on our fears, creating fear and division.
My true brothers and sisters suffered and sacrificed along side of me in Arabia, Iraq ... they stood the ground in Guantanamo Bay. Many, too many, are gathered on the far side of the parade field, no longer with us. But they will be remembered on this day.
My deadline for submission of this article was May 20. On the 20th, I will have again been assisting a Gold Star mother in a local cemetery in the remembrance of her son who gave the ultimate sacrifice. As I write this, members of my old brigade are in the National Cemetery honoring the service members of our parent unit in a time-honored tradition. Memorial Day has a unique significance to me.
For the Gold Star families (families of service members who died in combat), Blue Star Families (families of service members currently deployed) and veterans, Memorial Day is a stark reminder of what it means to serve.
However, not all people who served were honorable. Not all veterans honorably served even though they may have an honorable discharge. This day for me isn’t about them. This day is about honoring those who respect their service, our country and who seek to co-exist and were willing to put their life on the line to defend you, me and the American dream. “Honorable Service After
Honorable Discharge” is my guiding principle.
I finally told my disrespectful admirer that evening after his second return to leave my presence in the simplest of terms that even a child would understand. As he sheepishly walked away, I saw two Marines who were in attendance that night in their full-dress uniforms. Watching them, both obviously respectful, honorable and proud in their uniforms, I relearned a lesson refreshed time and time again in my life: honor those who deserve through their actions to be honored. Beware of those who talk loudly, too quickly and with a hidden agenda in plain sight.
Don’t waste your time with time wasters. You listen with your ears but see with your brain.
There are always good people. That’s how we have survived beyond laws and rules and misguided buffoonery. Somehow, our Constitution and government has survived everything from civil war, riots and the burning of our flag. Nothing, nothing has stopped people from around the world seeking a piece of the American dream.
Everyone should visit a cemetery this Memorial Day to be reminded of the cost of freedom. Look across the decorated graves of those who served and remember what Memorial Day represents. Think about those currently serving and ask yourself, are you part of the problem or part of the solution. America is more than catchy slogans and slick rhetoric designed to bury our flag and derail our government.
As you stand above ground, honor those who are resting below ground — and make tomorrow a better day!
On this Memorial Day as we honor our fallen servicemen and women who so selflessly served our country.
We at the Mascho Funeral Home, Inc. would like to join our community and the nation in remembering the courageous men and women who put freedom first. We would like to especially remember all those veterans that we have lost this past year including:
Ronnie L. Hough
James R. Sortore
Ronald E. Morris
Jack K. Morrison, Sr.
Dino “Dean” Ross
Joseph J. Wichensky, Sr.
Paul E. “Gene” Westerburg
Gary R. Martin
Charles Ferraiolo, II
James A. Moore
Patrick M. Ekas
Bruce J. Haight
Raymond P. Burlingame
Dennis R. Ordiway
Michael L. Mascho, Supervisor
75 Kennedy Street, Bradford Phone: 368-7149 www.maschofuneral.com
“Where your family is our family”
More than 105 years ago a Bradford hometown hero was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his actions in some of the heaviest fighting in World War I.
“The Second Battle of the Marne was the last major German attack on the western front during World War I,” said Arron Heft, a historian with the U.S. Army Center for Military History, Washington, D.C. “The Germans failed to break through the Allied line, and on July 20 they were ordered to retreat.”
Aug. 3, 1918, the soldiers of the 112th Infantry Regiment, 28th Infantry Division, received orders to pursue the German Army as they retreated toward the Vesle (v’ell) River. Intelligence showed the river was a formidable obstacle. It averaged a width of 20 to 35 feet, its muddy bottom had wire entanglements; all of this under enemy observation and fire.
Along the river was the town of
Fismette. The town was impenetrable, with fire coming from German machine gunners and snipers. The offensive to take Fismette would begin Aug. 8 with a walking artillery barrage screening the advance of the regiment.
In the midst of this fighting, heroic actions were undertaken by Cpl.
James T. Powell, Co. C, 112th Infantry, 28th Infantry Division; the Army National Guard unit now located at Lewis Run.
Order No. 145 by the War Department dated Dec. 28, 1918, described his actions.
While the company advanced through the heavy fighting in the town, one infantry platoon was pinned down by a sniper. Powell snuck through the wreckage of the shell-torn town crawling through holes and over rooftops stalking the enemy sniper, eliminating the threat.
Later, heavy enemy fire would pour on the regiment as it advanced, trying to prevent the crossing of the Vesle River. Here, Powell volunteered to swim the Vesle River to continue the offensive beyond the river and help bring reinforcements and ammunition.
The fighting resulted in 60 enemy prisoners with no less than 350 enemy killed.
For the 112th Regiment the costs were high: 41 killed, 168 wounded, 128 gassed, 59 missing in action.
“The fighting on the Vesle wasn’t listed as a campaign,” said Heft. “However, for most of the soldiers who fought it, it was the most horrific fighting they would see during the
war. We should all remember these soldiers who did what had to be done when the chips were down. They fought for their country and their mission, but more importantly, for their survival and the survival of their fellow soldiers.”
Citation: Cpl. James T. Powell served with Co. C, 112th Infantry, 28th Infantry Division in WW I. Order No. 145 War Department dated Dec. 28, 1918. For extraordinary heroism in action near Fismette, France, Aug. 9, 1918. When a platoon of his company was held up by sniper fire, he, undaunted, voluntarily crawled through holes in walls and over roofs, located the enemy sniper and killed him, enabling the platoon to proceed without further loss. Later in the engagement, when reinforcements and ammunition were needed, he volunteered and swam the Vesle River under machine gun fire. For these actions, Powell received the Distinguished Service Cross.
The book compiled by Col. Edward Martin, “The Twenty-Eighth Division in World War I,” was consulted for this history.
It is the soldier, not the reporter Who has given us the Freedom of the press. It is the soldier, not the poet Who has given us the Freedom of speech. It is the soldier, not the campus organizer Who has given us the Freedom to demonstrate. It is the soldier Who salutes the Flag, Who serves beneath the Flag, and Whose coffin is draped by the Flag, Who allows the protesters to burn the Flag.
By: Father Denis E. O’Brien, USMC.
This June 6 will mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day, the invasion of France. A number of local men were part of the very first unit to hit Omaha Beach, and eight did not survive the day.
Three companies of the 299th Engineer Combat Battalion had one of the hardest jobs on June 6, 1944 — go ashore and clear the way for the infantry and tanks. Dragging rubber rafts filled with explosive and trying to keep their heads above water with 50 pounds of personal equipment, the engineers moved up the beach to clear eight 50-yard gaps in the underwater obstacles to let the thousands of troops, tanks and landing craft behind them onto the beach. The A and C companies landed at Omaha Beach, along with the headquarters and service company. Company B landed at Utah Beach.
According to the 1950 book, “The Famous 299th,” by 7:15 a.m. five of the gaps had been established despite heavy mortar and artillery fire. By 10 a.m., the beach had been cleared and the unit began clearing the remaining clearing obstacles from the beach. Artillery and air attacks continued through the next day. For several days after, artillery and sniper fire harassed the troops as they worked with little food or rest. Despite the fiercest fighting along the Normandy front that day, the unit paved the way for the liberation of France. The unit received the Presidential Unit Citation for its efforts at Normandy.
“The mission of the battalion was
completed under extremely difficult and hazardous conditions, which required extraordinary heroism and determination on the part of each individual,” the citation stated. “The esprit de corps of the 299th Engineer Combat Battalion exhibited in this action is worthy of the highest praise.”
But that came at a price. A third of the unit was killed, wounded or missing at the end of the battle, including 65 dead — and eight from Cattaraugus and Allegany counties.
In total, Company A saw 19 men killed, including Pvt. Raymond Cartwright of Andover; Pvt. Kenneth Fatty of Coldspring; Pfc. Joseph Michael O’Connor of Ellicottville;
and Sgt. Howard R. Morris of Machias. Company C lost 33 men, including Pfc. Albert Richard Boehmer of Machias, Pfc. Charles L. Burt of Cuba, Sgt. Edward L. Dorney Jr. of Wellsville, and Sgt. Robert James Moritz of West Valley.
Not since Sept. 29, 1918 — when 10 of Olean’s Company I fell in an assault on the German Hindenburg Line a generation earlier — had so many area men from one unit been killed in a single day’s fighting.
Reports indicate that several never even set foot in France before making the ultimate sacrifice.
Burt is mentioned in an article
on the battalion’s alumni website by Chuck Hurlbut, who wrote of his experiences in 1998. In the article, Hurlbut said he recognized Burt’s body after he was killed by an artillery shell before reaching the shore.
O’Conner was reportedly killed at 6:30 a.m. — the very beginning of the invasion — according to the obituary published in the Times Herald upon the return of his body to the area in 1947. His body was originally interred at Saint Laurent-sur-Mer Cemetery, but under a worldwide effort by the War Department, hundreds of thousands of killed in action servicemen were repatriated to the U.S. after the war ended. O’Connor was buried in Holy Cross Cemetery.
Several others were returned, including Cartwright, who was laid to rest in Hillside Cemetery in Andover. Burt’s family told the Times Herald that he was also originally interred in France before being brought home to Cuba.
All told, almost 21,000 Americans would be killed in the battle, but by the end of August more than 2 million Allied troops would be ashore thanks to the efforts of the 299th and others.
Several efforts to remember the battalion and its contributions to the war have been made. There are three monuments to the unit in the Auburn area, as many of the men who served in the unit were from the area. A section of Interstate 190 from Tonawanda to Youngstown was dedicated as the 299th Engineer Combat Battalion Memorial Highway in 2006, as several men who fought in the unit were from the Buffalo area.
On its side, on the ocean floor, in the Outer Banks, rests a former U.S. Navy landing craft.
It’s a military vessel Eldred native Joel Gilfert wants to see for himself one day.
Gilfert has traveled the world visiting cemeteries, memorials and battle-significant locations such as the Netherlands American Cemetery and the Ardennes forest. Yet this particular artifact holds special significance for Gilfert, who’s spent decades meticulously memorializing McKean County military members.
Not because it was used as a ferry from Roanoke, N.C., for almost 20 years, until it sank while being towed for repairs in 1962. Nor is it, entirely, because of the heavy damage it took from direct German fire at Normandy.
Gilfert’s cousin Robert Gilfert served with the U.S. Navy on that very vessel, bringing American soldiers to shore on D-Day, June 6, 1944. Three men in Gilfert’s crew were killed in that mission, as they delivered to Omaha Beach the 81st Chemical Mortar Battalion, with which Bradford legend Elmer DeLucia served.
In researching the details of his cousin’s service, Gilfert further discovered that the flag flown on that vessel holds pride of place with the family, also in North Carolina, of a fellow serviceman assigned to the craft.
That’s another artifact he’d like to see, and it’s just one of the stories he’s uncovered in the development of his website JFG Victory Verlag & Military History Archive, jfgvictoryverlag. com, “honoring the military history
recalled. “Robert Longnecker, my Otto-Eldred history teacher was the driving force, he really opened the doors in my mind for history.”
Gilfert said he took his efforts to another level when he returned from Germany in 2000 and, in the years since, has taken down the names and details of thousands of McKean County veterans killed in service.
“It’s like being a private investigator,” Gilfert stated. “Find the clues and build the story. Finding answers is the biggest reward, but not just finding the answers, making sure it’s out for public knowledge and remembrance.”
Gilfert said he’s contacted by people all over the world regarding his research and veterans’ families are routinely grateful when he can provide details their loved one wouldn’t, or couldn’t, discuss.
federal and state. It’s impossible to count how many hours.”
Gilfert, now residing in Portville, N.Y., works second shift at Cutco, allowing him to spend his days chasing history.
For some context, Gilfert said he’s uploaded 15,000 photographs in the course of his work. When he began, there were 250 World War II servicemen and -women for whom he didn’t have a picture. He said he has “about a dozen” left to find and that “putting a face to a name helps tell the story.”
His work isn’t wholly digital, either. He said he takes care of two cemeteries in Eldred — “Making sure every veteran’s grave has a flag for Memorial Day, all that stuff” — and secured markers at Oak Hill for more than a dozen veterans buried there without even a tombstone.
of McKean County, Pennsylvania.”
His 2005 work, “McKean County Honor Book of War Dead & Missing,” details “nearly 500 soldiers, sailors and airmen that paid the ultimate sacrifice in the service of our great nation and county,” the site reads.
“McKean County Pennsylvania During Wartime 1941-1945,” from 2007, is “10 chapters detailing the history of McKean County’s involvement during World War II.”
His site, which he’s been building since the turn of the century, has tabs for the Civil War, Spanish-American War, World War I and II, Korean War, Vietnam War, Gulf Wars and Afghanistan.
Gilfert got hooked on history during the Eldred centennial celebration held in 1980.
“I was 12 and went nuts with the history that was going on,” he
It’s extensive work that consumes an incredible amount of time for the research required.
“Countless hours,” Gilfert said. “Not just research but driving around every town in the county, taking pictures of memorials, going to vets clubs to see what they have on their walls. I’ve done everything trying to build a list, using government files,
Will Gilfert’s work ever be complete?
“It’s not possible to finish it. It’s a never ending thing,” he said. “I’ll probably work on this ’til the day I die, just trying to keep it updated.
“It’s great to help others with information. These men and women — they should never be forgotten. Their valor, service and sacrifice should never be forgotten.”
As people all over the nation celebrate Memorial Day and the loved ones lost serving their country, Corporal John D. Hughes is remembered for his heroism during World War I and for making the supreme sacrifice for his country.
Hughes was one of Salamanca’s soldiers who did not make it back after the war. He was killed in action Sept. 12, 1918, during the Battle of Saint-Mihiel. An article published in the “Salamanca Inquirer,” Oct. 25, 1918, said Corporal John Desmond Hughes was the first man from Salamanca to be killed in action in France. He is also believed to have been the first Salamanca man to enlist in the U.S. Army.
In July 1917, Hughes went to Oklahoma where he enlisted in Co. B, 5th Machine Gun Battalion, 2nd Division. He received his training at Gettysburg, Pa. and went to France that December.
According to the Pritzker Military Museum and Library, the Battle of Saint-Mihiel (or St. Mihiel) was a key battle of World War I, also known as “The Great War.” The conflict that took place Sept. 12-15, 1918 involved the American Expeditionary Force and 110,000 French colonial troops under the command of U.S. General
John J. Pershing.
Information from the Library of Congress says the Saint-Mihiel salient (a piece of land) was strategically important as it hindered rail communications between Paris and the eastern sections of the front. Eliminating the salient was necessary
With no insignia or stripes seen on his uniform, this photo of John Hughes was most likely taken when he was a private starting basic combat training at an unknown post.
before the final Allied offensive of the war could begin.
As the Germans were withdrawing, General Pershing launched the first American-led offensive of the war, near Verdun, France, on Sept. 12, propelling the recently organized American First Army — half a million Americans and four French divisions under U.S. command — against positions the Germans had held around the town of St. Mihiel for nearly four years. On Sept. 16, the American offensive ended in victory. Not long after his friend’s death, Corporal John Maroney who was serving with the U.S. Forces on the Rhine, submitted a letter printed in
...continued on page 12
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“The Republican Press” to inform all their friends.
“I know it is my duty to all of you at home to tell you this horrible news,” he said. “John and I met in Winchester, England, Jan. 8, 1918. We were both happy to see each other and to know we were in the same division in France. John was stationed near Milancourt and I was at Brainville, but we did not get to see each other. After we went into the line, we were going all the time and never came across each other after that.”
MARONEY HEARD rumors of Hughes’ death immediately after he returned from the hospital in Paris, but it was never confirmed until he received a letter from an unnamed pal.
This letter said Hughes and this
other friend were both transferred out of the 60th Infantry Regiment at Gettysburg. They were always together up until the time of Hughes’ death, which was caused by shell fire and was instantaneous causing him no suffering.
According to Maroney, Hughes was killed about one mile northeast of Thiaucourt and was buried at the same place by his platoon commander, Lieutenant Stevens. A plain wooden cross with his identification disc marked his grave.
“Kindly see that all the boys are informed of this and tell them for me that if there is a possible chance of me ever being near Thiaucourt again, I will certainly see his grave is a fitting one for a pal, so brave and fearless and who gave his life for his country,” he said.
After his heroism and resulting death from shell fire during the battle, the U.S. Army Resources Command posthumously promoted Hughes from corporal to sergeant.
On April 7, 1919, the French government officially recognized Sgt. Hughes, posthumously, for his great tenacity and bravery in courageously resisting counterattack and in maintaining the position conquered by his squad. He was awarded the Croix de Guerre with Palm and cited as one of Salamanca’s heroes who gave his life for the cause in France.
Born Dec. 12, 1888, in Salamanca, Hughes spent most of his life in Salamanca. The Press was unable to find the names of his parents who reportedly died when he was very young. After their death, he lived with his aunt, the late Miss Nellie Hughes.
A graduate of the Salamanca Business College, Hughes was employed by the Wells Fargo Express Company for seven years. He was a member of the Salamanca Chapter of the Knights of Columbus and Salamanca Lodge B.P.O.E.
Hughes was survived by one sister, Frances Como, of Schenectady, and one brother, James Hughes, who was stationed at the U.S. Army Hospital in Hoboken. His headstone is at Calvary Cemetery in Salamanca.
The Hughes-Skiba Post #535 was named in honor of the first Salamanca soldiers killed in action in WWI and WWII, Corporal John D. Hughes and Sgt. Connie J. Skiba, respectively. Both men answered the call to serve their country without hesitation.
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All gave someSome gave allLet us remember everyone on this Memorial Day
McKean County has had a longstanding commitment to the U.S. military, including the Korean War. Local resident Joel F. Gilfert has developed a website that spells out the servicemen and women who have been lost in service to their country — https://jfgvictoryverlag. com/mckean.goldstars/KOREA. html
PFC Robert N. Allen, 22, of Bradford was killed in action Sept. 2, 1951 at Hwachon Reservoir, North Korea.
After capturing a hill in North Korea that his unit had lost the day before, he was hit and killed by heavy mortar fire. He was with the 31st Infantry, 7th Infantry Division.
PFC Clyde E. Anderson, 24, of Eldred, was killed in action Dec. 11, 1952, in North Korea. He was with Weapons Company, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division.
Airman First Class Donald J. Anderson of Kane died in an air crash June 18, 1953 in Japan. He was a passenger on a C-124A Globemaster transport traveling from Tachikawa Air Base, Japan to Korea when the aircraft crashed about
three miles from the base. He was with the Headquarters, 51st Fighter Interceptor Group, US Air Force.
PFC Raymond O. Anderson, 22, of Kane, was killed in action Sept. 3, 1950, in Pusan, South Korea. He was with the 8035 Signal Service Company.
Cpl. Jay E. Beck, 20, of Bradford, died of wounds Feb. 16, 1951, as a prisoner of war. He was seriously wounded and taken prisoner near Hoensong, South Korea, on Feb. 13, 1951. His remains were not recovered. He was with Headquarters Battery, 15th Field, Artillery Battalion, 2nd Infantry Division.
First Lt. William E. Copley, 36, of Bradford, was killed in action in North Korea on March 23, 1952. He was with the 31st Infantry, 7th Infantry Division.
Sgt. Neil K. Dorrion, 25, of Eldred, was killed in action Nov. 4, 1950, in Kunu-ri, North Korea. A veteran of World War II, he was killed in action while tending to his wounded comrades. For his leadership and valor, he was awarded the Silver Star. He was with Medical Company, 5th Regimental Combat Team, 24th Infantry Division.
Cpl. Robert G. Foster, 19, of Duke Center, was killed in action Sept. 18, 1950, in Waegwan, South Korean, The 5th and 7th Cavalry Regiments
fought tough battles against enemy positions to the north and east of Waegwan on Hills 174, 188, 253 and 903 (Ka-San). All attempts were stopped cold in all 1st Cavalry sections with heavy casualties on the American side. He was with Company B, 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, 1st Cavalry Division.
Second Lt. Howard J. Griffin, 29, of Bradford, was killed in action Sept. 19, 1951, on Hill 931, Heartbreak Ridge, North Korea. A decorated veteran of World War II, he was with Company A, 1st Battalion, 23rd Infantry, 2nd Infantry Division.
Lt. J.G. Orlo H. Kane, of Kane, died May 26, 1954, in Narragansett, Rhode Island, He was a crew member of the aircraft carrier USS Bennington CVA-20, cruising in Narragansett Bay when a launching catapult exploded, killing him and 101 fellow crewmen. U.S. Navy Radarman 2/c Edward L. Knickerbocker of Eldred died July 31, 1951 in an automobile accident while on furlough.
PFC Robert L. Paul, 19, of Ludlow, was listed as missing in action Dec. 2, 1950, while fighting the enemy in North Korea. He was presumed dead on Jan. 15, 1954.
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PFC Neil W. Peasley of Smethport died of illness on May 13, 1950, in the Philippines. He was with Company E, 188th Parachute Infantry.
Cpl. Herbert L. Price, 20, of Bradford, was killed in action Sept. 3, 1950, in South Korea. 82nd Anti-Aircraft Artillery, Automatic Weapons Battalion, 2nd Infantry Division.
Private William A. Reedy, 25, of Eldred, was killed in action June 12, 1953, at Outpost HARRY, North Korea. Weeks before the end of the war, the Chinese made a determined attempt to take Outpost Harry. Each night a single company defended the outpost but suffered high casualties. The American forces overwhelmed them and forced retreat June 13, but Reedy was lost in the fighting. He
was with 15th Infantry, 3rd Infantry Division.
Master Sgt. Charles M. Rhodes, 38, of Bradford, was declared missing in action July 14, 1953, in Kumsong, North Korea, and presumed dead on July 15, 1954. A veteran of World War II, he was with Battery B, 555th Field Artillery Battalion, 5th Infantry Regimental Combat Team.
Cpl. Stephen J. Romanick, 21, of Kane, was killed in action Oct. 3, 1951, in Heukseok-dong, North Korea. He was with 16th Reconn, 1st Cavalry Division.
Sgt. Albert E. Simmons, 22, of Smethport, was killed Sept. 26, 1950, as a prisoner of war. He was taken prisoner while fighting the enemy in South Korea on Aug. 31,
1950, and was killed by a North Korean guard on Sept. 26, 1950. His remains were not recovered. He was with Company B, 1st Battalion, 23 Infantry, 2nd Infantry Division.
Sgt. Oscar E. Stanford, 31, of Bradford Township, died July 6, 1952, in Hennde, South Korea. A veteran of World War II, he died of non-hostile causes. He was with the 930th Ordnance Ammunition Company, 335th Ordnance Battalion.
PFC Keith A. Strotman of Bradford died Oct. 9, 1950, in South Korea. He was with the 17th Infantry, 7th Infantry Division.
PFC Richard J. Taylor, 23, of Bradford, was killed in action July 24, 1953, in North Korea. He was with 31st Infantry, 7th Infantry Division.
Private Dan A. Turney, 20, of Corydon Township, drowned Sept. 2, 1952, at Fort Bragg, N.C. He and 39 other trainees were given a demonstration ride aboard an engineer pontoon raft on a nearby lake when the raft capsized. He and 19 others drowned. He was with the 406th Engineer Training Brigade.
Sgt. Jack C. Zuver, 27, of Bradford, died of wounds Nov. 28, 1950, in Parwon Myon, North Korea. A decorated veteran of World War II, he was defending a hill when his position was overrun. As his unit withdrew, he was mortally wounded in the chest from a mortar shell. His remains were not recovered. He was with Company K, 3rd Battalion, 35th Infantry, 25th Infantry Division.
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OSWAYO, Pa. — One of the main focuses of the L.E.E.K. Veteran Hunting and Mountain Preserve, founder and president Ed Fisher says “is to proudly serve our wounded and injured veterans.”
The organization’s motto “SAVAW,” speaks directly to that, “Serving All Veterans All Wars,” adds Fisher, a retired colonel in the U.S. Army.
Not all wounds are visible. Many of our nation’s veterans go through everyday life appearing “normal” like any other civilian. However, many veterans are struggling to connect within the civilian world around them.
L.E.E.K., located in Oswayo Township, Potter County, is on the front lines in dealing with assisting our nation’s heroes in finding peace and purpose in the civilian world. The magic of L.E.E.K. happens during the preparation, conduct and the periods afterwards with events held at the facility. Veterans bond in fellowship and remembrance, reflecting on similar experiences lived in the military culture of selfless service and teamwork.
L.E.E.K. taps into the quest for outdoor activities that many veterans enjoy. Multiple hunting and fishing events are held at the preserve each year.
Part of the preparation for getting out into the field for hunting events is starting at the range house to prepare for a safe outing. The range house, located on the L.E.E.K. property, is
where veterans learn to safely shoot from wheelchairs or the mobile track chairs used to get the warriors out into the field. The range house was originally a single level structure dedicated to the memory of U.S. Army Master Sgt. Thomas D. Maholic, a native of Bradford, who enlisted as an infantryman in 1991.
Maholic died at the age of 38 on June 24, 2006 in Kandahar Province, near Ghecko, Afghanistan, when he was fatally struck by enemy small arms fire. As a Special Forces team sergeant assigned to 2nd Battalion, 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne), Maholic embodied the spirit that the newly refurbished range house instills in the warriors who visit the facility.
tunity for veterans from both Pennsylvania and Western New York to gather and learn more about a great resource in their own backyard while honoring a fallen brother in arms.
The rededication will be held at the range house. The L.E.E.K. Preserve is located at 494 Route 244, Oswayo. There will be plenty to see and do for the entire family prior to and after the event.
L.E.E.K. is a non-profit, all-volunteer organization that assists veterans with disabilities facilitating their participation in outdoor recreation activities.
• 9 to 11 a.m., registration for Motorcycle Run at Shinglehouse American Legion. Ride departs at noon.
• 9 to 11 a.m., Kids Fishing Derby
• 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., Youth Turkey Shoot (with adult)
The range house recently went through an upgrade that created a second level on the structure for elevated shooting. It is scheduled to be rededicated in Maholic’s name at this year’s L.E.E.K. open house.
U.S. Marine Corps veteran Benjamin Allen recounts about a recent event he attended at the range house.
“The range facility was the perfect place,” he said. “The range coaches provided guidance on how to sight in safely and correctly and we were able to get the weapon to accurately hit the target from close and long distances.”
Army veteran Duane Andrews, who served in Vietnam in 1969 and is a L.E.E.K. range safety and firearms instructor, related that he enjoys the feeling of duty, responsibility and giving back when he’s assisting the warriors getting ready for hunts at the facility.
“I like ensuring that when they are out in the field they’ll feel safe and comfortable during the hunt,” Andrews said.
The rededication is set for June 8 at noon during the L.E.E.K. open house. All area veterans and veteran supporters are welcome to join the remembrance celebration.
The open house is also an oppor-
• 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., AR Golf Shoot
• 11 a.m., Opening Ceremony
• Noon, Maholic Range House rededication
• 1 to 3 p.m., Corn Hole Tournament
• 4 p.m., drawing for basket auction items
• 5 to 8 p.m., Gun Bash and live auction
• 10 p.m., fireworks
Live music, vendors, food trailers and displays throughout the day.
• 9 a.m., Sunrise Service
For more information, e-mail 278LEEK@gmail.com
ELDRED — Hero, an explosives detection specialist with the U.S. Army, now retired, was seriously injured during his fourth tour in Afghanistan in August 2021. He was airlifted to surgery and later flown back to the United States for a second operation. By October, Hero had made his way to Potter County.
“When we got him he had stitches from his ear to his shoulder, some of them were still a little red,” said Hero’s human and Coudersport resident, Mia Narayan.
Mia and her husband, Lalu, have cared for dogs all their lives. Mia explained she previously had adopted and worked with a former military police dog, Bear. So, when the couple’s pair of German shepherds passed and they decided they were ready for another dog, their
search led them to Patriot K9 Rescue in Elysburg, and to Hero.
Steve Appleby, curator at the Eldred World War II Museum and himself a U.S. Special Forces veteran, introduced the four-legged retired serviceman and his family during a Hero’s Christmas ceremony held at the museum.
“A lot of people kind of overlook the four-legged heroes,” Appleby said. “A World War II buff since childhood, I learned about the war dogs that fought in the Pacific and helped us detect Japanese ambushes and mine fields. They saved countless lives. There’s actually a memorial now to war dogs. So it’s very important that we recognize their service and their sacrifice as well.”
Scott Burt, president of the Bare Knuckle Boxing Hall of Fame in Belfast, N.Y., presented Hero and the Narayans with several items to recognize his honorary induction.
“How does Hero fit (at the Bare Knuckle Boxing Hall of Fame)?” Burt asked, rhetorically. “Honorary inductions are for those people, and animals, that bring a positive spotlight to our geographical area as they have excelled in a combat field. Hero fits perfectly.”
The items included two dog
dishes with the Hall of Fame coin on the front, a collar with the coin and U.S. Army insignia, a Purple Heart Homes dog tag and a stone from the original Harley-Davidson factory adorned with a German shepherd and six globes to represent Hero’s six tours of duty. In addition to Afghanistan, 8-year-old Hero also served in South Africa and Australia.
Then, Burt bestowed Hero with a Knucklehead Medallion, which he said are given to “winners of all our fights throughout the world.
“They’re recorded in a huge leather ledger in Belfast,” Burt said. “Hero will be the first K9 to receive one and his name will be in the hall of fame.”
In his hard-won retirement, Hero enjoys the Kong toy he never goes anywhere without, his orthopedic dog bed, hikes, green grass and open spaces.
“Snow was new, he likes to play in the snow,” they added.
“For a dog that’s been through as much as he has, the one thing that astounded me as I got to know him was his loving personality,” Mia said.
“We’re very proud of him and happy for him,” the Narayans said. “He deserves it. A lot of boys came home because of him.”
They answered the call of their nation, facing danger and death to defend our freedom. On Memorial Day, we solemnly remember and honor these brave men and women for their heroic service and sacrifice.
To every soldier - past and present, at home and abroad - we salute you
814-225-2220 Sun. 1-4pm | Mon. Closed Tues.-Sat. 10am to 4pm
A monument honoring the lives and memories of men from the Salamanca area who died in the Civil War was unveiled during a Decoration Day ceremony 125 years ago.
Standing on a plot of ground that extends about 125 feet from the entrance to the city-owned Wildwood Cemetery, the monument occupies a commanding position fronting and overlooking Wildwood Avenue. With the nearby railroad and full-grown trees along Lindwood and Cottage
avenues, the monument’s view overlooking Wildwood Avenue isn’t as impressive, but the statue’s commanding position atop it sure is.
As reported in the June 2, 1899 edition of the Cattaraugus Republican (the precursor to the Salamanca Press), the monument was furnished by Forness Bros. of Salamanca for a contract price of $2,300 — about $90,000 in 2023 — but it was understood to have cost the contractors several hundred dollars more.
“It is a beautiful monument,” the Republican reported. “We are safe in saying no town in the state the size of Salamanca has a better one.” The monument, “built of the best dark Barre granite,” stands 29 feet tall on a 12-foot square and is topped with an eight-foot-tall granite figure of a soldier at parade rest.
The town of Salamanca appropriated $1,000 (about $38,000 today) for the monument, and private subscriptions, fairs, entertainments and more had raised an additional several hundred dollars.
Credit for the monument was due in large measure to J.O. Spencer, commander of the G.A.R. (Grand Army of the Republic) Sherwood Post No. 380.
“For several years, he has worked untiringly to create public sentiment in favor of the monument and to raise money for the same,” the Republican reported.
The monument’s inscription reads: “Erected By Sherwood Post, No. 380. In Memory Of Our Dead Comrades.”
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The Republican reported that “no public occasion in the history of Salamanca excited more general interest than did the exercises connected with the unveiling of the soldier’s monument in Wildwood Cemetery on Tuesday, May 30, 1899.”
It was reported that people flocked from neighboring towns and counties to Salamanca for the ceremony with some estimates claiming 10,000 “evidenced their interest in the occasion by their presence on the streets and at the exercises at the monument.”
“It was not a crowd of pleasure and curiosity seekers merely, but people moved by an impulse of patriotism and in full sympathy with the day and the occasion,” the Republican reported. The weather was also perfect with clear, invigorating air and bright sun that dried up the mud from a recent storm so the parade march from downtown up to the cemetery wasn’t a mess.
“In consequence of the unveiling exercises the decoration of the soldiers’ graves was not given the usual prominence; that duy was performed by a detail from Sherwood Post in the forenoon, and without particular ceremony,” the Republican reported. “The graves of the civilian dead were also profusely decorated, and the cemetery presented a most attractive appearance.”
The following are the Civil War soldiers who are interred in the Wildwood Cemetery: Dr. McLaughlin, J.D. Crockett, George Klump, John Mehuren, Arthur Bull, Thomas Lamb, E. Litchheld, Benjamin Hillman, Hiram Dye, Robert Trumbull, George M. Hart, Lieut. Meeder, I.N. McKibben, Henry C. Barlow.
ELDRED — There’s been a changing of the guard at the Eldred World War II Museum.
Longtime leaders Jesse Case and Steve Appleby are retiring, and Liz Threehouse and Kyle Dunn are taking over.
Case is the executive director, and Appleby is the curator and educational program director.
The public is invited to the museum April 13 between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. to celebrate the retirement of the two.
Dunn and Threehouse learned the
ropes for a few months before Appleby and Case retired.
Treehouse, of Olean, N.Y., is the new executive director. She has been a substitute teacher at Olean Middle School and Allegany-Limestone High School, an adjunct professor of social media marketing at Jamestown Community College in Olean, an adjunct professor of IMC-digital marketing at St. Bonaventure and owner of Idea Girl Co. for marketing and copywriting.
Dunn is from Portville, N.Y.
“My father, Patrick, was a U.S. Air Force reservist for the majority of my childhood, and I spent a lot of time being taken to Niagara Falls Air
Reserve station. It’s really because of him that I fell in love with military history, particularly in World War II aviation,” he told The Era.
“From a very young age (as little as 2 years old), he and my mother would take me to airshows and museums where I was surrounded by WWII aircraft and reenactors,” Dunn said. “In fact, one of my earliest memories was being taken to the Eldred World War II museum in the late 1990s, back when it was just what is now the ‘entrance.’ As I grew, I frequented the museum as it too expanded and became what it is today. In a way me and the museum grew up together.”
On Memorial Day, honor two 1940 Gowanda Central School graduates who were Gowanda’s first and last servicemen to die in World War II.
One perished 24 days after Pearl Harbor. The other died six hours after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Their remains have yet to be found.
Pvt. Carroll D. Heath enlisted in the U.S. Army in February 1941. He completed training with the Signal Corps at Fort Monmouth, N.J., and went to the Philippine Islands that August. On Dec. 8, Japan attacked the Philippines. After that day, Army records listed Heath in “beleaguered status,” surrounded by a hostile force preventing escape.
Heath became Gowanda’s forgotten warrior.
From a broken home, Heath moved between family members before living with his aunt in Gowanda for high school. Most class members had been together since elementary school; Heath did not have long-term relationships with classmates.
In November 1945, the Army informed Heath’s aunt that her nephew died on Dec. 31, 1941. Heath became Gowanda’s first soldier to die in World War II. On Jan. 1, 1946, Gen. Douglas MacArthur sent his aunt a letter telling her that Heath died as a prisoner of war.
By 1951 the Army listed Heath’s remains as non-recoverable due in part to tropical conditions ruining means of identification, along with destruction of graves by Japanese soldiers.
Gowanda’s World War II Honor Roll did not include Heath’s name for 69 years. Yet, his name appeared on a cenotaph in Manilla. In 2015, a classmate’s interest in Heath’s status led to a series of Associated Press stories.
The Army, after a June 2015 analysis, claimed Heath did not die as a POW.
However, in a July turnabout, the Army posthumously awarded Heath nine medals including the Bronze Star, Purple Heart and POW Medals. With recognition as a POW, Heath’s name was added to the database at the National Prisoner of War Museum in Andersonville, Ga.
On Sept. 2, 2015, the 70th anniversary of VJ Day, Carroll Heath’s name and picture were added to Gowanda’s World War II Honor Roll.
Heath’s classmate, Rolland J. Luce Jr., enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Forces in February 1943. After a series of stateside training assignments, Luce went to China as a B-24 bomber pilot in February 1945.
On Aug. 6, 1945, Luce was a flight officer on a B-24 delivering gasoline from India to China. That B-24, nicknamed “Poco Moco,” lost contact
over Burma. No crew members or aircraft parts were ever found.
The unit history of the 308th Bombardment Wing had no reference to that flight, according to the Air Force Historical Research Agency.
A May 18 letter from Luce’s girlfriend may have foretold his fate. The young lady admonished him for writing “if I’m alive” in a previous letter Luce sent her. Luce and his crew flew over a region called “The Hump” — over the Himalayan Mountains. Their B-24 is one of nearly 500 aircraft still missing in that area.
A Sept. 25, 1947, military summary outlined efforts made to find the missing B-24. Fifteen military aircraft spent 79 hours searching for the bomber. There was no ground search. According to the report, the 1352nd Base Unit, an Army Air Forces search and rescue organization, reached the following conclusions, based on the
fact that there were no parachutes or survivors reported seen by Burmese natives in the area:
“…aircraft either exploded in the area scattering parts for miles or crashed in the jungle and is not visible from the air.”
Families of Heath and Luce provided DNA samples to the Defense POW/MIA Agency (DPAA) in the event that remains are found. As of this past April, there has been no new information about the fate of the missing classmates.
Headstones in Cattaraugus County await the return of Heath and Luce.
(Gowanda native Alan E. Mesches retired from a sales and marketing career and became a writer. Now living in Frisco, Texas, he is the author of “The Flying Grunt and Major General James A. Ulio and “How the Adjutant General Enabled Allied Victory,” both published by Casemate Publishers.)
NORFOLK, Va. — Memorial Day is supposed to be about mourning the nation’s fallen service members, but it’s come to anchor the unofficial start of summer and a long weekend of discounts on anything from mattresses to lawn mowers.
But for people such as Manuel Castañeda Jr., the day is very personal. He lost his father, a U.S. Marine who served in Vietnam, in an accident in 1966 in California while his father was training other Marines.
“It isn’t just the specials. It isn’t just the barbecue,” Castañeda told The Associated Press in a discussion about Memorial Day last year.
Castañeda also served in the Marines and Army National Guard, from which he knew men who died in combat. But he tries not to judge others who spend the holiday differently: “How can I expect them to understand the depth of what I feel when they haven’t experienced anything like that?”
It’s a day of reflection and remembrance of those who died while serving in the U.S. military, according to the Congressional Research Service. The holiday is observed in part by the National Moment of Remembrance, which encourages all Americans to pause at 3 p.m. for a moment of silence.
The holiday stems from the American Civil War, which killed more than 600,000 service members — both Union and Confederate — between 1861 and 1865.
There’s little controversy over the first national observance of what was then called Decoration Day. It occurred May 30, 1868, after an organization of Union veterans called for decorating war graves with flowers, which were in bloom.
The practice was already widespread on a local level. Waterloo, New York, began a formal observance on May 5, 1866, and was later proclaimed to be the holiday’s birthplace.
Yet Boalsburg, Pennsylvania, traced its first observance to October 1864, according to the Library of Congress. And women in some Confederate states were decorating graves before the war’s end.
David Blight, a Yale history professor, points to May 1, 1865, when as many as 10,000 people, many of them Black, held a parade, heard speeches and dedicated the graves of Union dead in Charleston, South Carolina.
A total of 267 Union troops had died at a Confederate prison and were buried in a mass grave. After the war, members of Black churches buried them in individual graves.
“What happened in Charleston does have the right to claim to be first, if that matters,” Blight told The Associated Press in 2011.
In 2021, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel cited the story in a Memorial Day speech in Hudson, Ohio. The ceremony’s organizers turned off his microphone because they said it wasn’t relevant to honoring the city’s veterans. The event’s organizers later resigned.
Someone has always lamented the holiday’s drift from its original meaning.
As early as 1869, The New York Times wrote that the holiday could
become “sacrilegious” and no longer “sacred” if it focuses more on pomp, dinners and oratory.
In 1871, abolitionist Frederick Douglass feared Americans were forgetting the Civil War’s impetus — enslavement — when he gave a Decoration Day speech at Arlington National Cemetery.
“We must never forget that the loyal soldiers who rest beneath this sod flung themselves between the nation and the nation’s destroyers,” Douglass said.
His concerns were well-founded, said Ben Railton, a professor of English and American studies at Fitchburg State University in Massachusetts. Even though roughly 180,000 Black men served in the Union Army, the holiday in many communities would essentially become “white Memorial Day,” especially after the rise of the Jim Crow South, Railton told the AP in 2023.
Meanwhile, how the day was spent — at least by the nation’s elected officials — could draw scrutiny for years after the Civil War. In the 1880s, then-President Grover Cleveland was said to have gone fishing — and “people were appalled,” Matthew Dennis, an emeritus history professor at the University of Oregon, told the AP last year.
By 1911, the Indianapolis 500 held its inaugural race on May 30, drawing 85,000 spectators. A report from The Associated Press made no mention of the holiday — or any controversy.
Dennis said Memorial Day’s potency diminished somewhat with the addition of Armistice Day, which marked World War I’s end on Nov. 11, 1918. Armistice Day became a national holiday by 1938 and was
renamed Veterans Day in 1954.
An act of Congress changed Memorial Day from every May 30th to the last Monday in May in 1971. Dennis said the creation of the three-day weekend recognized that Memorial Day had long been transformed into a more generic remembrance of the dead, as well as a day of leisure.
In 1972, Time Magazine said the holiday had become “a three-day nationwide hootenanny that seems to have lost much of its original purpose.”
Even in the 19th century, grave ceremonies were followed by leisure activities such as picnicking and foot races, Dennis said.
The holiday also evolved alongside baseball and the automobile, the five-day work week and summer vacation, according to the 2002 book “A History of Memorial Day: Unity, Discord and the Pursuit of Happiness.”
In the mid-20th century, a small number of businesses began to open defiantly on the holiday.
Once the holiday moved to Monday, “the traditional barriers against doing business began to crumble,” authors Richard Harmond and Thomas Curran wrote.
These days, Memorial Day sales and traveling are deeply woven into the nation’s muscle memory.
Jason Redman, a retired Navy SEAL who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan, told the AP last year that he honors the friends he’s lost. Thirty names are tattooed on his arm “for every guy that I personally knew that died.”
He wants Americans to remember the fallen — but also to enjoy themselves, knowing lives were sacrificed to forge the holiday.
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