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Ann (Deluchie) Jarocki

Farrell, PA

U.S. Army – World War II

A humanitarian at heart, Ann (Deluchie) Jarocki went into nursing after graduating from Farrell High School in 1936. After completing her training, she joined the Red Cross “because they would send nurses to flood areas and hurricanes and tornadoes and I always wanted adventures.”

In 1941, she jumped at the chance to join the army, despite strong objections from her family. Lt. Deluchie served as a nurse in military hospitals in Ft. Lee, VA, and Ft. Benning, GA. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, she was among the first to volunteer for overseas service.

On March 1, she and her fellow nurses boarded a 17 ship convoy in New York without knowing where they was headed. When they arrived at the Panama Canal, they knew they were going to the Pacific. Six weeks later they were setting up hospitals on the northeastern coast of Australia.

The American army was fighting the enemy who occupied most of New Guinea, less than 100 miles to the north. Casualties were flown in to the hospitals in Australia. Then, as U.S. forces advanced, Lt. Deluchie volunteered for transfer to a hospital on New Guinea. Although the enemy was being pushed back, they still had the capability of conducting air raids – sometimes even at night when the moon was full.

“The moon was so bright that when we were on night duty we would sit outside the tent and make our notes out there. I never saw such a beautiful moon in all my life.”

But because it was so brilliant, it made targets easily visible for air raids, so they called it the Bombers’ Moon.

After two and a half years in Australia and New Guinea, Lt. Deluchie was discharged from the army. Return from the war brought an end to her military service, but it didn’t diminish her commitment to humanitarian service. She became involved in the Mercer County Association of the Retarded (MCAR), serving as its first president, as well as a member of many committees.

She also volunteered continually wherever she was needed. She did blood pressure screenings at various locations in the Shenango Valley; was a ‘Polio Volunteer’ in 1954 with Dr. Jonas Salk, administering vaccinations and medications to control polio; was a school aide at Monsignor Geno Monti Elementary School, Farrell; and was a camp nurse for many years at summer camps for the mentally challenged.

Anthony DeGerolamo

DeGerolamo, Anthony

Wheatland, PA

U.S. Army, Vietnam

The Tet offensive launched by the North Vietnamese army and the Viet Cong late in January, 1968, cost the United States military more casualties than any comparable in the Vietnam war. One of those was PFC Anthony DeGerolamo from Wheatland, PA.

PFC DeGerolamo was assigned to Headquarters Company, 5th Battalion, 60th Infantry, 9th Infantry Division. As a medic, he would have been attached to the battalion’s line companies during combat operations. They were indeed outstanding fighting units. On February 1st, 1968, Companies B and C charged from their Mekong Delta base in armored personnel carriers to counterattack the enemy forces who had seized parts of Saigon. According to the Presidential Unit Citation awarded them, “With complete disregard for their personal welfare, the men of Company B and C began a vicious assault against the enemy stronghold. Demonstrating indomitable courage and superior firepower, they crushed the determined foe.”

Four days later, PFC DeGerolamo reportedly volunteered for a night patrol with Company C. In an ambush, two Company C soldiers, Sgt. Robert Torres of Philadelphia and Cpl Wayne L. Golon of Bergenfield, New Jersey, were killed in action. PFC DeGerolamo was first listed as missing in action, but was later reported as killed. The incident took place two days after PFC DeGerolamo’s 24th birthday.

The son of Mr. and Mrs. Anthony DeGerolamo, Anthony had been an outstanding football player and an honor student in Farrell High School. His football coach, William Gargano, described him for the Sharon Herald as “a quiet boy you didn’t know was around unless he hit you on the football field.”

Gargano said DeGerolamo was one of the better linebackers ever to play for Farrell. “He wasn’t a big boy, but he was very quick and agile. He was a very fine football player and a real gentleman.”

He was drafted while he was near completion of his courses in pre-med at Youngstown State University. He arrived in Vietnam on January 5, 1968, exactly a month before he was killed.

On the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Panel 37E Line 34

Jim Lee

Farrell, PA

U.S; Army – World War II

A lot of people do the strangest things trying to gain respect, but fail precisely because they are seeking it. James C. Lee has gained it in abundance because he didn’t seek it. He just spent his life doing what truly respectable men do.

That wasn’t easy for a black man growing up in the south. But he worked hard to get into college. Then, while in college, he was drafted into the United States Army. At the time, black men were assigned only to all-black units. Well, almost all-black. All officers above the rank of lieutenant were white.

Army life for a black soldier at that time was not just systematically degrading; it could be downright dangerous – right here in the United States. Lee was in the Shenango Personnel Replacement Depot awaiting overseas assignment on the night of July 11, 1943, when conflict a between white and black soldiers ended up deadly.

“I went up the street,” Lee said. “There must have been at least 15 or 25 people killed. The army says like only two or three people killed. But you could see those lying around.”

Assigned to the all-black 2nd Cavalry Division, Lee was sent to Casablanca in North Africa, where the division was dismantled to make up replacement units. Lee became Electrician Foreman in the 1334 Engineer Construction Battalion, which was responsible for furnishing electricity for military hospitals in Italy.

“Allied headquarters would allot me say 40 civilians to do the manual work and things like that,” said Lee, who was a tech sergeant by then, “and I had six NCOs with me that had electrical training.”

Lee worked with his unit all the way from Naples up to the Italian Alps. They were there when the war ended in May.

After the war, Lee returned to Farrell. Despite his outstanding qualifications and electrical experience, he found all doors closed to him because of the color of his skin. Always one to overcome adversity, he opened his own radio and television repair business which he ran successfully until his retirement.

For fifty years Lee has been a dynamic member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. He has served as post commander, district commander, and many years as quartermaster of VFW Post 7597. The walls of his VFW office are covered with evidence of the respect Lee has earned: countless certificates and plaques honoring his service to his fellow veterans.

Peggy Mazyck

Farrell, PA

U.S. Army Reserves – Desert Storm Era

MSG (ret.) Peggy Mazyck strongly felt that she should not be included among the veterans honored in this program. She feels that there are thousands of others who have done more, sacrificed more, suffered more.

She belongs in it, however, because there are hundreds of millions of Americans who have done far, far less. Without people serving honorably and diligently in the military reserves, our country could not field a viable fighting force when it needs to do so.

Peggy enlisted in the Reserves while she was a student at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Assigned to the 347th Quartermaster Company in Farrell, she worked her way up through the ranks, eventually becoming platoon sergeant for the Product Control Section.

That made her a vital part of the 347th Company’s mission: to provide fuel to combat operations of all branches of the service throughout the world. Without it, tanks could not run on the battlefield; jet fighters could not attack; cargo planes could not bring in troops, equipment, and supplies.

Her unit conducted petroleum supply operations all over the USA, and completed a tour in Korea. Sgt. Mazyck achieved numerous awards including several Army Commendations Medals.

In the mid-1980s, Sgt. Mazyck transferred to the 1036th US ARMY Reserve Force School, which is also headquartered in Farrell. Because of the knowledge she accumulated, she became Chief Instructor/Writer, eventually being promoted to master sergeant.

“I was in charge of the whole group,” she said. “We were tasked with training soldiers from all over the country. During the summers, working with the equipment, you not only teach; you also learn constantly.”

During Operation Desert Storm, MSG Mazyck was activated to the Quartermaster School in Ft. Lee, VA, where she trained soldiers in petroleum supply operations. After this tour of duty, she returned to the USAR School in Farrell until her retirement from the Army in 2002.

“I loved being in the Military,” she said. “I felt that I was doing something very good. It was gratifying to see soldiers gaining the knowledge they needed. I also loved the camaraderie. Over the years we became a very cohesive group.”

The next time you see a Reservist, shake his or her hand and thank them for their vital service. They may not fit the normal concept of heroes, but without them, there wouldn’t be many heroes.

Richard A. Funelli, Jr.

Funelli, Richard

Farrell, PA

U.S. Marines, Vietnam

In January, 1967, a kid watched the funeral of Marine Cpl. Richard A. Funelli, Jr. in Farrell, PA.

“I was in seventh grade and watched his funeral from a school window across the street from Our Lady of Fatima Church,” wrote Chip Krokoski. “His Honor Guard, dressed in their Blues, seemed impervious to the miserable weather that day. The conduct of those Marines that day instilled in me the desire to seek a military career.”

Krokoski did indeed become a career officer, retiring as a Lieutenant Colonel. He never lost his desire to know more about Cpl. Funelli. He finally got some answers many years later after posting a question on the Internet.

“Cpl Funelli was a machine gunner,” wrote fellow combatant Harry Faber. “His position was hit by sappers and the sand bags fell on top of him and he died that way. . . . A lot of positions were hit with satchel charges that night. My hootch was blown up , even what I was sleeping on! It was like Custer’s last stand!”

“I remember Cpl. Funelli quite well,” wrote Jon Bolton, a survivor of that 15 January attack. “He had a great sense of humor. He made us laugh a lot.”

Bolton’s account of that night seems slightly at odds with Faber’s. “I remember Funelli initially surviving for some time after being wounded. He was lying on the ground outside of his bunker. In fact, I remember the Corpsman standing over him as he begged for Morphine to ease his pain.”

The information on the virtualwall.org that Cpl. Funelli died of artillery, mortar, or rocket fire would support Bolton’s version. The bottom line is this: it really doesn’t matter. Such variations can be attributed to the intense confusion that always surrounds close combat.

This was the second time Cpl. Funelli had been hit with shrapnel. He had been evacuated to Japan in March, 1966, to recuperate from wounds to his legs. He returned to Vietnam in late September.

Cpl. Funelli was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Richard A. Funelli, Sr., of Farrell. Richard Funelli Sr. served with the Marine Corps in World War II on Iwo Jima and Okinawa.

Cpl. Funelli enlisted in the Marine Corps two months after graduating from Farrell High School. He left behind his parents and a brother, Gerald, who was a ninth grader at Kennedy Christian High School at the time of Richard’s death.

On the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Panel 14E Line 34

Roger A. Brown

Farrell, PA

U.S. Marine Corps, Vietnam

American forces in Vietnam fought two wars at the same time: the war to defeat the enemy with weapons and combat operations; and the battle to “win the hearts and minds of the people.”

The Marine Corps united these two missions by implementing the Combined Action Program, in which a squad of Marines would live in a Vietnamese village and combine combat operations, especially village defense, with Vietnamese Popular Force platoons. The close, constant contact between U.S. Marines and Vietnamese people was aimed at spreading the geographical area that could be effectively controlled by the U.S. military while improving understanding and trust between the Americans and the Vietnamese.

Given the nature of the war and the frequent inability to distinguish friend from foe among the Vietnamese, serving in these units demanded extraordinary fortitude and bravery. Corporal Roger A. Brown was one of those Marines who served in a Combined Action Group in Quang Nam province. He was killed by small arms fire while on patrol on December 18, 1968.

Roger was born to Jack and Pauline Cooper Brown in 1945 in Winchester, Virginia. According to his friends, he was a great guy. After working at General American Transportation Corporation and the Coca Cola Bottling Company in Sharon, he joined the Marine Corps on September 29, 1967. He trained at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, and Camp Pendleton, California, before going overseas on March 1, 1968.

Roger left behind his parents; his wife, the former Marcia Gladysz; a son Gregory and a daughter Jacqueline; a sister, Mrs. Gail Shields; and a brother Jerry.

On the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Panel 36W Line 039

Sam Stanovich

Stanovich, Sam

Farrell, PA

U.S. Army – World War II

Sam Stanovich loved baseball. One of his favorite players was Joe DiMaggio. But DiMaggio was never Sam’s hero.

“My heroes are all the kids who died in the wars,” he said.

Sam and all four of his brothers served in war zones. Fortunately, none of them were heroes as Sam defines the word.

Drafted in 1942, Sam didn’t like military life.

“They never made a soldier out of me,” he said, “but I did what I had to do.”

Actually, he did a quite a bit more than he had to do. He volunteered for a mission that earned him a Bronze Star and a Russian medal, and got his name in a couple of books about World War II.

Sam was drafted in 1942, two years after graduating from the new Farrell High School. He went to basic training and radio school at Fort Hood, Texas. Then he took some tests for the Army Specialized Training Program, which sent selected soldiers to study at universities, supposedly for 18 months. They were to become officers designated to help restore civilian governments in Europe after the war.

Unfortunately, the program was terminated after about six months when the army started preparing for the invasion of Europe.

“They sent us to beef up the divisions that were in the process of going overseas,” Sam said.

Sam’s unit, the Reconnaissance Troop of the 104th Infantry Division, landed in Cherbourg, France, on September 7, 1944, exactly three months after the Normandy invasion. The Allies needed the port of Antwerp to transport supplies from England to a big supply depot in Belgium. The 104th Infantry Division was joined with the First Canadian Army to capture it.

That supply depot was a principal German objective during the last great German offensive of the war, the Battle of the Bulge, in December, 1944.

“We were just north of the Battle of the Bulge. The Germans threw everything they had into that. When they made their first attack, some of their paratroopers landed around us.”

The combined Allied armies, including the 104th Infantry Division, pushed the Germans back into Germany. There Sam personally witnessed the horrors of the Nazi regime. In early April, Sam’s unit arrived in Nordhausen, an auxiliary facility of the Buchenwald Concentration Camp.

“Out of the 6,000 prisoners left there, 5,000 were dead. Our commander, General Allen, made us go in. Underneath the stairways bodies were stacked like cordwood. In the double-decker bunks there were dead people lying right beside the living. Later people started saying the Holocaust never happened. In another 20 years, all the guys who witnessed it will be gone, and they’ll be another drive to push this lie that it never happened.”

By the end of April, the Allied armies were nearing Berlin from the West, while the Russians were reaching the Elbe River from the East. The mission to accomplish the first contact between the two armies is described in , Timberwolf Tracks, the History of the 104th Infantry Division:

The first Americans to make contact with the Russians in April, 1945. Sam is third from the left.

On the evening of April 23 Lieutenant Harlan W. Shank, Sergeant Jack Adler, Corporal Bob Gilfillan, and Corporal Sam Stanovich of the 104th Reconnaissance Troop, plus a liberated Russian officer, crossed the Mulde, headed for Torgau on the Elbe.

Sam had volunteered for the mission.

“Two of my best buddies were going, and they needed another guy with radio experience in case we made a contact and we had to do some radio work. I had been to radio school, so I volunteered.”

It was a mission filled with uncertainty. All alone, without any support, the five had to cross territory occupied by many German troops, about 30 miles from Berlin. Although they were surrounded by the enemy, they took the bold step of mounting an American flag on their jeep.

“That saved the day. The Germans were afraid to death of being captured by the Russians. The Germans had killed a lot of civilians in Russia, so they knew they would get more humane treatment with the Americans. Our army is probably the most humane army in the history of the world.”

Along the way, the four Americans encountered a German colonel who was in command of 1,200 troops.

“The four of us surrounded them and they surrendered,” Sam jokes. “Actually, the colonel was ready to surrender, but said he couldn’t without orders from higher command. He said to stop again on our way back through.”

Corporal Bob Gilfillan is quoted in Timberwolf Tracks about meeting up with the Russians: “Greeting the general was quite an honor, for I got the feeling that I myself was tying a bond that signified the end.”

On their way back to the American front, the patrol met up again with the 1,200 German troops.

“The Colonel wasn’t there,” Sam said, “but there was another officer. They had their guns all piled up, and our lieutenant told them exactly where to go to surrender.”

The end Gilfillan anticipated came just 10 days later. Germany surrendered officially on May 8, 1945.

Unfortunately, the war with Japan continued. Many American soldiers, including Sam, were sent to California to train for an invasion of Japan. Many were expecting a 90 percent casualty rate in that attack, but the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki brought about Japan’s surrender before their training even began.

Maybe the army didn’t make a soldier out of Sam, but he came out of it a good man. He delivered mail in Farrell 30 years. His passion was coaching Little League baseball. In 1965, his team made it all the way to the state finals.

“When he was coaching little league,” his sister Martha said, “he was really great with those children. When he was a mailman he was the same. And he has always been a very considerate brother.”

Terrance Edwin Klaric

Klaric, Terrence

Farrell, PA

U.S. Marine Corps, Vietnam

During his first Vietnam tour in 1965, Lance Cpl. Terence Edwin Klaric was severely wounded. After spending more than a year in a hospital in the United States, he volunteered to return to Vietnam. In December, 1966, he was assigned to the Combined Action Program with Headquarters Battalion of the 3rd Marine division, in Quang Tri, the northernmost province in South Vietnam.

At that time in the CAP, a Marine rifle squad and a Navy Hospital Corpsman would live in a village and work with a Popular Force platoon to provide security against the Viet Cong. The objective was to develop the Vietnamese forces to the point where they could protect the village by themselves. They also helped the villagers with humanitarian aid, such as digging wells, building schools, and the development of other humanitarian projects.

With only about a dozen men, far from any units that could provide quick support, the teams were extremely vulnerable to enemy attack. Many were overrun, often with few or no survivors.

As to Lance Corporal Klaric’s actual role in this, we know little other than the fact that he was killed on May 5, 1967, probably by an enemy grenade.

The Headquarters Battalion Command Chronology covering May 1967 covers such items as the opening of a new mess hall on May 7 for sergeants and below, with an enlisted club attached. Lance Cpl. Klaric might have enjoyed that, if he had still been alive.

The report also details the work of the Dental unit – 5365 procedures on 2304 Vietnamese patients, and the distribution of precisely 1027 toothbrushes.

Recorded for posterity is the fact that the headquarters communications center processed a total of 45,922 messages during that month of May.

What the report doesn’t include is any details about actual combat operations, other than a terse listing of the unit’s casualties: 7 officers wounded in action, 5 enlisted men killed in action, 50 enlisted men wounded in action. Names of those casualties are not included; but we know that one of those enlisted men was Lance Corporal Klaric.

Other than that fact, of course, none of the other details matters to his parents, Farrell residents Peter and Edith Parker; or to his two sisters and five brothers.

Lance Corporal Klaric was the seventh man from Mercer County and the second from Farrell to be killed in action in Vietnam.

On the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Panel 19E Line 90

Terrence Kuzak

Farrell, PA

Marine Corps – Vietnam

Many people have heard of the Bridge over the River Kwai because of the popular 1957 movie starring Alec Guinness. Set in World War II, it shows British and American prisoners of war building a magnificent bridge with great engineering but few other resources, then destroying it. The movie’s stirring theme song was played by practically every high school and college band in the country.

Because of the excellence of the movie, few people realize that the story is entirely fictional. Surpassing it in every way was the very real Liberty Bridge across the Thu Bon River 80 miles south of Da Nang. Built in 1967 by Navy Seabees (nickname based on the pronunciation of C-B, for Construction Battalion) , under constant harassment from enemy forces, it was 2,040 feet long, 32 feet above the low water level.

Before its completion, all traffic on Route 1 south of Da Nang had to be ferried across the river one vehicle at a time. This slowed convoys literally to a standstill, and set each truck out as a slow-moving target. Because of its vital strategic role, the Viet Cong attacked the bridge constantly to destroy it or control it.

The mission to defend it was given to the 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines. That was the unit to which Marine Lance Corporal Terrence M. Kuzak was assigned when he arrived in Vietnam on July 28, 1969. He undoubtedly heard stories about the tremendous battle around the bridge that took place on March 19, 1969, when a battalion-sized enemy force attacked a little after midnight. That day, a Navy corpsman named David R. Ray was killed while relentlessly disregarding his own safety to save others. For that he was awarded the Medal of Honor.

The Command Chronology of the 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines for 9 December 1969, the day that Lance Corporal Kuzak was wounded, includes the following entry: “0930H – While on sweep at AT849546 Co F tripped a boobytrap consisting of 60mm w/trip wire, resulting in 1 Priority-Evac. Medevac wall called and completed.” Although the chronology doesn’t mention Lance Corporal Kuzak by name, that was the only entry on that mentioned a casualty.

Kuzak survived evacuation to a naval hospital in Yokosura, Japan. During his fight to recover there, his doctors appealed to the folks back home to flood him with cards and letters to keep up his spirits. But he died on Christmas Eve, 1969.

Lance Corporal Terrence M. Kuzak was the only child of Michael and Ann Ciccarone Kuzak, R.D. 1 West Middlesex. He was a 1969 graduate of Farrell High School.

Lance Corporal Kuzak was the 31st Mercer County serviceman to be killed in the Vietnam War.

On the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Panel W15 Line 90