Greenville Archives - Avenue of Flags

Allen Neil Palm

Palm, Allen Neil

Greenville, PA

U.S. Army – Vietnam

Allen Neil Palm was a Greenville native, 1968 graduate of Reynolds High School, who ended up tromping through the marshes of the Mekong Delta with the 9th Infantry Division in the Mobile Riverine Force.

“Letters from the front were rare and are now long lost,” wrote his sister, Carol, “but I remember that his complaints were few – only that his feet were suffering from the march through swamps.”

Friends and family would not have expected many complaints. They were used to his unassuming attitude and willingness to sacrifice for the sake of others.

“He and his brother Wes both wrestled at Reynolds,” Carol said. “One of them had to quit to help Dad on the farm. Allen quit so Wes could continue to wrestle. That’s what kind of a kid he was.”

After graduating from high school, Allen attended the New Castle School of Trades and worked as a material cutter in the Westinghouse in Sharon. When he was called into military service in October, 1968, Allen made no big fuss.

“We would never know what he thought about going half a world away to fight in the jungle,” Carol said. “It was simply his duty. He had already seen friends and neighbors ship out, so he prepared as best he could to leave his family and home to serve his country.”

Details of that service are difficult to find, but as a soldier in the 9th Division, we know that he served in the Mekong Delta. According to accounts by other soldiers, one of the most common tactics was to cruise up and down the countless waterways on the Navy’s modified ships until they were shot at. The ship would return fire, then drop off the infantry to assault and destroy the enemy. Sometimes they would be out for days on end, plenty of time to get their feet very wet.

Ninth Division troops would also be inserted into known enemy territory by helicopter and retrieved the same way when their mission was accomplished.

On December 5, 1968, Allen was killed by enemy booby trap while he was on patrol. He was posthumously awarded the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart.

On the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Panel W37 Line 47

Cecil G. Moyer

Greenville, PA

U.S. Air Force – Vietnam

On November 29, 1970, Captain Cecil Gerald Moyer was piloting a C-123 aircraft that had just taken off from Cam Ranh Bay Air Force Base in Vietnam. Twelve miles south of the air base, the plane crashed in the jungle for undetermined reasons. The plane carried 32 Americans and 12 South Vietnamese. The Americans were officially listed as missing in action. When the plane was located on December 5, two non-commissioned officers were rescued from the wreckage . Further searches discovered the bodies of the remaining personnel. One of those was Captain Moyer.

Another C-123 crashed in the same vicinity several days before. All 79 people on that plane were killed.

Many years later, Captain Moyer’s wife, Sally, was serving as a Stephen Minister at Fort Sanders Regional Medical Center for many years. She came across an idea that inspired her: a portable chapel for use in patient rooms and family waiting areas throughout the hospital.

“It was something that just jumped out at me, something practical that was certainly needed by our patients, their family members and our own caregivers,” said Sally. “It was also a fitting memorial for my husband and those who died with him in service to our country.”

At the chapel’s dedication ceremony, the hospital’s chaplain, Jeff Ryan, made an observation that is too often forgotten. He pointed out that if Captain Moyer and those who died with him had lived, they would be getting ready for retirement and enjoying their grandchildren.

The Captain Moyer was born in Greenville to Mr. and Mrs. Cecil G. Moyer. He graduated from Greenville High School in 1963, and from Thiel College in 1967.

He entered the Air Force in 1967, and was assigned to the 315th Airlift Wing in Vietnam.

On the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Panel W6 Line 94

Claude Musgrove

Musgrove, Claude

Greenville, PA

U.S. Army – World War II

As the 164th Engineer Combat Battalion battled its way through Europe during 1944 and 1945, Claude Musgrove served as the unit’s photographer. He converted a captured German ambulance into a mobile dark room and made an enlarger using a condenser lens from a movie theater.

Inside of Claude’s mobile darkroom

Along the way, he photographed history in the making. His unit was among the first to enter Germany, crossing the famous Ludendorff Bridge at Remagen. Hitler’s army had failed to destroy the bridge as they were retreating, so 8000 troops of the 9th Armored Division crossed it within 24 hours after capturing it. Claude’s battalion was put in charge of defending the bridge. The Germans threw everything they could at it – bombs, artillery, even frogmen who swam down the Rhine to blow it up. They failed initially, but managed to damage it severely.

“The major in charge of the bridge told the Stars and Stripes that after ten days’ work it was stronger than it ever was. The next day it collapsed and killed him and twenty-three engineers,” Claude said.

Mussolini and Hitler viewing results of assassination attempt

Claude did his best to preserve historical photographs he found in German government buildings. He found more than 500 photographs taken by Heinrich Hoffmann, Hitler’s personal photographer. One shows Hitler and Mussolini inspecting a room destroyed by a bomb in the failed assassination attempt of July 20, 1944.

Another photo triggered a personal memory for Claude. It shows Herman Goering, head of the German Luftwaffe, with Colonel Ernst Udet, the number two ace in World War I, after the Red Baron (Manfred von Richthofen).

“In 1935,” Claude said, “I saw him in person at the Cleveland Air Show. He was over here spying on our airports to see what we had. He flew a biplane upside down and picked up a handkerchief off the ground.”

Claude also had two books that each include a viewing apparatus and 100 stereoscopic photographs of Germany and the war. Another book on the history of the Nazis had actual glued-in photographs instead of pictures printed on the pages.

Claude returned to work at Westinghouse. After he retired in 1969, he and his wife Evelyn bought a motel in Clearwater, Florida, which they operated for nine years. After that, they spent winters in Florida and summers in Fredonia. Their family grew to include 18 grandchildren and 21 great grandchildren.

He bought his first computer when he was 88. He used it to digitize the many photographs he had taken and collected.

Daniel Brozovich

Greenville, PA

U.S. Army, War on Terror

When you read the profiles of the men and women whose names appear on the Vietnam Memorial, you are overwhelmed with how young most of them were when they died – in their teens or early twenties.

Not so with the heroes of the War on Terror. Sgt. Daniel Brozovich, for example, was 42 years old when he died while on patrol in Ashraf, Iraq, on October 18, 2006.

The army of the late ‘60s and early ‘70s was made up mostly of draftees and young people who enlisted to fight in Vietnam. When the war there ended, so did military conscription. The last men drafted reported for duty in June, 1973.

So it was an all-volunteer army that fought in Iraq and Afghanistan. Many were career military reservists who were called to active duty.

That again was the case for Sgt. Brozovich. When he and his twin brother, David, graduated from Bedford High School in 1982, Danny joined the Marines and David joined the Air Force. Four years later, Danny moved back to Pittsburgh to work for Alcoa. But he still believed in an obligation to serve his country, so he joined the National Guard.

He married Mary June Stevens; they had a daughter, Carrie. Then he moved to Greenville to work at Werner Company. That’s where their second child, Ryan, was born. For a short time before his last deployment, he worked as a guard in state prisons, first in Fayette County and then in Findlay Township.

During his military career, Sgt. Brozovich served a tour in Germany and two tours in Iraq. Daniel’s father, Anthony, admired the way Danny’s wife handled it all, calling her a rock who supported her husband and held the family together. His final assignment was with the 107th Field Artillery Battalion in New Castle.

“When he was military, he was all military,” said his mother, Beth.

His compatriots in the army agreed with her. At the news conference in the National Guard Armory in New Castle announcing his death, Lt. Col. Grey Berrier II said Sgt. Brozovich was a charismatic leader who was “fully committed in word and deed to empowering the Iraqi people to pursue political and economic freedom. He was a man who “always led from the front.” Similar praise characterized his funeral service in Greenville.

Sgt. Brozovich was well decorated with two Bronze Stars, Purple Heart, War on Terror Expeditionary Medal, Good Conduct Medal, Pennsylvania Meritorious Service Medal, Iraq Campaign Medal.

Donald Stephen Mihordin

Greenville, PA

U.S. Army – Vietnam

Donald Stephen Mihordin must have been an optimist. He married Carol Ann Kilgore on September 9, 1967, about a month after he had entered the Army. He had to have known that he would be going to Vietnam.

That happened on March 25, 1968, when he was assigned to the 25th Infantry Division’s Company D, 4th Battalion, 9th Infantry on March 25, 1968. The Division was headquartered in Cu Chi, just northwest of Saigon. And that guaranteed that he would be involved in some serious combat.

The 25th Division had operational responsibility for Tay Ninh Province, just north of a portion of Cambodia that protrudes into Vietnam. That area of Cambodia provided a sanctuary in which Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army units could gather supplies and troops to stage attacks into South Vietnam. Until late in the war, they could be certain that the American and South Vietnamese forces would not attack across the border into Cambodia.

Tay Ninh Province was intensely disputed throughout the war, especially after the NVA increased its use as an infiltration route during 1968. The fighting was unrelenting; making any break from it welcome, indeed. In the summer of 1968, Donald was able to go on R&R to Hawaii to visit his wife, Carol Ann.

Shortly after she returned home, she learned that Donald had been killed in action.

On November 26, 1968, Donald’s unit was engaged in a bitter fight about 3 kilometers southeast of Tay Ninh City. Before the day was out, 26 Americans were dead, including eighteen from the 4th Battalion, 9th Infantry. One of those was Sp4 Mihordin from Sharon, mortally wounded in the neck when he triggered a land mine.

Donald never got to see his five-week-old son, Donald.

Donald had been born in Greenville to Mr. & Mrs. Stephen Mihordin. After graduating from Hickory High School in 1965, he attended Youngstown State University until he entered the Army.

He was survived by his parents, his wife Carol Ann, son Donald, sister Charlene, and brother Richard. He was preceded in death by another brother, Jack Mihordin.

Sp4 Mihordin was posthumously awarded the Bronze Star, Purple Heart, and Good Conduct Medal.

He was the 19th Mercer County serviceman killed in Vietnam. He is buried in Hillcrest Memorial Park, which is now America’s Cemetery (SM).

On the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Panel W38 line 77

Ed Kochis

Ed Kochis

Greenville

U.S. Army – World War II

For Ed Kochis and his quartermaster unit in North Africa, the major threat to survival wasn’t enemy attack. It was meeting the ordinary needs of everyday life, such as food, water, and shelter.

They had c-rations – at least, when the supply ships weren’t sunk. They had to scrounge food any way they could, and buy it from the locals. One staple was a hard bread that the Arabs soaked in wine.

“We didn’t have any wine,” Kochis said. “We seeped it in onions and water. I went from 225 pounds down to 185. We had one canteen of water a day to bathe and drink.”

For a year and a half, the 76 men in his unit slept in pup tents. Each soldier had a shelter half, so two had to get together to make up a tent. Kochis and his tent mate were both over six feet tall. When it rained, they had to put their duffle bags outside to keep our feet dry.

The unit’s living conditions improved after they moved to Italy, near Foggia. Some of his friends managed to “requisition” cots and some walled tents that could sleep five or six.

The closest Kochis got to the front lines was about ten miles.

“But that was close enough,” he said, “because the ground would shake when big bombs would go off. We had a few bombs dropped near our air field. But we were pretty lucky that way.”

Some of Kochis’s friends were not as lucky. On a day off in Foggia, he went to the movies. “While I was in the movies, I heard this fellow laughing. I said to my buddy who was with me, ‘That sounds like a fellow from Greenville.’ I hollered, ‘Hey, Bill Doyle!’ He said, ‘Who is it?’ I said, ‘Ed Kochis.’

Doyle was a B-17 pilot stationed about ten miles from Kochis. They saw each other a couple of times a week for several months. Then he didn’t show up. He had been fatally shot down over Czechoslovakia.

Kochis’s last few months in the army were nothing like his years overseas. As a PT instructor in Texas, he led calisthenics, played softball twice a day, and had the rest of the day off.

Returning home in 1945, Kochis got a job at the Greenville Motor Club, which became the Mercer County Motor Club. He remained as head of that organization for 41 years.

Eric Knauf

Eric’s graduation picture

Greenville

U.S. Army – Vietnam

In 1969, a year after graduating from Greenville High School, Eric Knauf enlisted in the army “because it was the right thing to do.” During his initial testing, he qualified for helicopter flight school.

“They told me the washout rate was very high,” he said, “and then a very high death rate if you didn’t wash out. I said that’s okay.”

After training, Warrant Officer Knauf was assigned to an air cav unit in the Mekong Delta. At Christmas time, the unit moved us up to Quang Tri Province, by the DMZ.”

There they participated in Operation Lam Son 719, a major invasion of Laos by the South Vietnamese Army, with aerial support from the U. S. Army.

Knauf, Eric

“All we did all day, every day was go out and get into a fight,” he said.

A helicopter would fly into known enemy territory to draw fire. Other gunships would follow them in and attack the positions from which the enemy was firing.

“Our mission was to go find them and shoot as many as we could and come home at the end of the day.”

But as he had been warned, the casualty rate for helicopter pilots and crew was high indeed. Some days not everyone came home. On February 27, 1971, that included Eric Knauf.

“We were trying to get two pilots out of Laos,” he said. “The first rescue mission got shot down. We went in right behind them and got shot down, too. Another mission was able to get us out. The first two pilots are still listed as missing in action.”

Air assault team

Besides offensive missions, they also had to defend their base at Khe Sanh.

“They would fire mortars on us every night. We mounted C-130 landing lights and a minigun on a helicopter. When we saw the mortar flash, we would light up the whole area and hit the minigun. Their position disappeared, trees and all.”

Eric was one of the fortunate ones. He survived an astounding 1318 flight hours, including 1081 in combat. From that he accumulated what he calls a bunch of junk in this basement that includes three Distinguished Flying Crosses, a pile of Bronze Stars and Air Medals (31 of the former, 36 of the latter, including three for valor), and a Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry.

Eric served four more years in the National Guard flying Cobras with an air cav unit in Washington, PA.

Gus Kefurt

Greenville, PA

U.S. Army, World War II

It’s impossible to understand the strength and courage that enables one to perform in such a way as to merit the Medal of Honor. You might get a glimpse of it by considering the actions of Greenville native Gus Kefurt.

His excellence as a soldier is evident from the fact that barely four months after he joined the army in August, 1944, he was already a staff sergeant in Company K, 15th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division in France. That excellence is confirmed by his Medal of Honor citation:

“He distinguished himself by conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty on 23 and 24 December 1944, near Bennwihr, France. Early in the attack S/Sgt. Kefurt jumped through an opening in a wall to be confronted by about 15 Germans. Although outnumbered he opened fire, killing 10 and capturing the others. During a seesaw battle which developed he effectively adjusted artillery fire on an enemy tank close to his position although exposed to small arms fire. When night fell he maintained a 3-man outpost in the center of the town in the middle of the German positions and successfully fought off several hostile patrols attempting to penetrate our lines. Assuming command of his platoon the following morning he led it in hand-to-hand fighting through the town until blocked by a tank. Using rifle grenades he forced surrender of its crew and some supporting infantry. He then continued his attack from house to house against heavy machinegun and rifle fire. Advancing against a strongpoint that was holding up the company, his platoon was subjected to a strong counterattack and infiltration to its rear. Suffering heavy casualties in their exposed position the men remained there due to S/Sgt. Kefurt’s personal example of bravery, determination and leadership. He constantly exposed himself to fire by going from man to man to direct fire. During this time he killed approximately 15 of the enemy at close range. Although severely wounded in the leg he refused first aid and immediately resumed fighting. When the forces to his rear were pushed back 3 hours later, he refused to be evacuated, but, during several more counterattacks moved painfully about under intense small arms and mortar fire, stiffening the resistance of his platoon by encouraging individual men and by his own fire until he was killed. As a result of S/Sgt. Kefurt’s gallantry the position was maintained.”

Binnwhir after the battle

Jaunary, 1945

S/Sgt. Kefurt was buried at the American Cemetery and Memorial in Épinal, France.

American Cemetery and Memorial, Epinal, France

Gus Kefurt’s marker at Epinal

Herbert Werner

Greenville, PA

U.S. Army – World War II

Those who deny the Holocaust should talk with the children of Herbert S. Werner. As children, they saw many photographs their father sent home that showed the concentration camps liberated by the 12th Armored Division.

Assigned to the headquarters of the 12th Armored Division as its chief financial officer, Lt. Col. Werner was in a position to observe the Division’s accomplishments, including its legendary combat operations, the capture of Werner von Braun, and the liberation of twelve concentrations in the area of Dachau.

He came to that position through a military career that started when he enlisted in the army in 1917. His first overseas deployment was with the Allied Expeditionary Force in France during World War I. Between the two world wars, he served as a captain in the Finance Corps of the army reserves.

As things were heating up in Europe during 1939, Captain Werner was called to active duty to serve as chief financial officer at the Raritan Arsenal in Metuchen, New Jersey. As the war progressed, the army sent him its Finance Officer Training School at Duke University before assigning him to the 12th Armored Division.

That division entered the European Theater of Operations through Le Havre, France, on November 11, 1944. After fighting its way across France and through the Maginot Line, the 12th Armored Division became the “Mystery Division” of General Patton’s Third Army. To accomplish the invasion of Germany, General Patton assembled thirteen divisions, making it one of the largest American armies in history. The identities of twelve of them were known, while the thirteenth was kept secret to enhance the element of surprise. The identity of that division became known when it crossed the Rhine River on March 24, 1945.

By the time the 12th Armored Division was departing Europe, Lt. Col. Werner was the oldest finance officer in Europe.

Lt. Col. Werner’s daughter, Shirley, also served in Europe, as a switchboard operator in Paris. Once, when her father was in Paris working on a project for the 12th Armored Division, they were able to spend some time together.

“When they went through Le Havre to come home,” said his son Don, “he had to climb the rope ladder up the side of the ship. All the guys knew he was an old guy, by their standards. When he got to the top, they gave him a big round of applause.”

“I never fully appreciated what Dad’s unit really went through during World War II,” wrote another son, Richard. “Now I also appreciate why Dad always loved his 12th Armored Division ring!”

John H. Lopochonsky, Jr.

Greenville, PA

U.S. Army – Vietnam

Nine months after graduating from Greenville High School in 1969, John Lopochonsky was drafted into the army. After training to be a helicopter door gunner, he headed to Vietnam in October, 1970 to serve with A Troop, 7th Squadron, 1st Cavalry.
He was assigned as a gunner on an OH-6A “Cayuse” helicopter. That put awesome power at his fingertips, probably 7.62 mm six-barrel minigun, a Gatling-type weapon that could fire at the rate of more than 2000 rounds per minute.

But to use that power, a gunner had to be both crazy and courageous. When teamed on a combat mission with a Cobra gunship, the Cayuse’s mission was to fly in low over suspected enemy positions to draw out their fire so the crew could mark their positions. Then the Cobra would come in with greater firepower and destroy them.

In other words, the Cayuse helicopters were sometimes used like moving ducks in a carnival shooting gallery. But unlike those ducks which flop over when hit with a b-b, the Cayuse could take a lot of serious hits and still take its crew home safely. One of them accumulated 1,340 combat hours, was shot down four times, and had two non-combat accidents. It was repaired every time, and in the end returned to the United States where it performed well for the New York National Guard.

Sgt. Lopochonsky wasn’t so fortunate. During his last mission, the Cayuse he was in crashed after taking too many hits. Before it crashed, however, Sgt. Lopochonsky proved that his core characteristic was ultimate courage. His Bronze Star citation, awarded posthumously, states that “he distinguished himself by exceptionally valorous actions, Volunteering for recon after the scout team came under intensive fire. . . . On a run over a heavily fortified enemy bunker, Lopochonsky completely exposed himself to enemy fire as he destroyed 5 buildings, one bunker, and four sampans.”

Sgt. Lopochonsky was survived by his brother James, and his grandmother, Mildred Artman.

He was the 37th Mercer County serviceman to die in the Vietnam War.

ON THE WALL Panel 03W Line 109