Eighteen years ago my brother embarked on a project that has significantly enhanced our knowledge of local history. As an impressionable child growing up during World War II, he was keenly aware of the suffering experienced by families of the young men who had lost their lives. In 2004 he volunteered to identify the war dead associated with Bethany Church and to honor them on Memorial Day weekend. This initiated a research project that resulted in a list of about three dozen men, and an annual tradition that they to be honored each year ever since.
In the process of coming up with this list Joe uncovered a number of fascinating stories about other Bridgeville/South Fayette area servicemen who had lost their lives during military service. The more he learned, the more additional leads were turned up. By 2010 he had compiled so much relevant information that it was obvious that it merited publishing; a handsome 270-page book entitled “Almost Forgotten”, with the subtitle “The Men from the Bridgeville and South Fayette Area Who Lost Their Lives While Serving in the Military”, was released the next year. It has proven to be a valuable resource to everyone interested in local history.
The original volume included a list of 107 names ranging chronologically from John Park Hickman (Aquia Creek, Virginia on April 27, 1863) to James McAleer (Vietnam on August 22, 1968), subdivided into Civil War, World War I, World War II, Korean War, Cold War, and Vietnam groups. In many cases Joe turned up poignant personal stories about the casualties and the folks who mourned them.
I was surprised to learn that there were eleven fatalities from this area during the Civil War, a time when it was sparsely populated. My favorite story is that of Richard Lesnett. Great-grand-son of Christian Lesnett, this area’s first settler, Richard was recruited by William Boyce to be part of Company K, “the Bridgeville Company”, an integral part of the First Pennsylvania Cavalry Regiment. The Company mustered in Bridgeville where they were presented with a battle flag, hand-sewn by ladies in Bethany Church, an artifact currently in the Espy Room at the Carnegie Library in Carnegie. Richard was seriously wounded in a fierce battle at Haws’ Shop during the Cold Harbor campaign in May, 1864, and died on a hospital ship being transported back North.
World War I produced twenty-two fatal casualties from this area. The best story from this group is that of Roy Purnell, the first African-American to make the list. He managed to survive the war, but ended up dying in a hospital early in 1919, probably as part of the Flu Epidemic. He was buried in the Oise-Aisne American Cemetery in Fere-en-Tardenois, France, survived by a widow, Viola, and a baby daughter, Amy. In the mid-1920s our government offered widows and mothers of servicemen buried overseas the opportunity of going to France to visit their graves. Viola’s request to be included in this program was turned down because of her color; her employer, Dr. James Fife, responded by paying her way himself, permitting her to go separately. Joe’s book includes a photograph of her at her husband’s gravesite – I get emotional every time I see it. Amy eventually married Morris “Mose” Perkins and was a significant member of our community until she died, a centenarian.
World War II produced sixty-three fatalities. Joe and I were too young to be involved in it, but old enough to be keenly aware of its horrors. To me, it will always be “the War”; let the other conflicts have all the qualifying names and numbers. This list is filled with gripping stories. Two brothers, Lawrence and Louis McCool, are included, as are two more African-Americans, Robert Randolph and Ronald Simpson. After the War the local African-American community established the Randolph-Simpson American Legion Post, a reminder to us how shaky race relations were in those days.
Alex Asti is featured on the cover of “Almost Forgotten”. Along with the five Sullivan brothers, he lost his life when the USS Juneau was torpedoed in the Solomons on November 13, 1942. Andrew Zura perished while a passenger on the troop ship HMT (Hired Military Transport) Rhona, sunk by a German radio-controlled glide bomb on November 26, 1943. The 1,015 American troops lost in this event still represent our greatest disaster at sea. Specific details of this sinking were withheld until the Freedom of Information Act was passed in 1967.
I distinctly recall our euphoria in 1945 when the War ended and we were able to look forward to a peaceful future. Included in the “we” were a lot of boys whom we knew well – Harry Stringer, Amos Jones, Sam Patton, Dick Johnson, and John Schulte, among others. Unfortunately our euphoria was short-lived and we were soon back at war and, a decade later, they were all victims. All told, twenty-one more area young men lost their lives defending our country in Korea, Vietnam, and in training accidents during the Cold War.
The loss of our Lafayette Street neighbor and boyhood friend, Amos Jones, was the hardest for us to accept. I was home on Christmas leave in 1953 when we learned that he was on a Navy P-2V Neptune Patrol Bomber that had crashed on a glacier in Iceland while on an anti-submarine reconnaissance mission. Twenty-eight years later the bodies were finally recovered, and Amos was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
Since publication and distribution of the book, Joe has learned of additional names that should be added to the list, as well as stories that warrant being recorded. Recently he published a fifty-six-page epilogue that includes them. “Almost Forgotten” is a tiny part of the legacy of these young men whose lives were cut far too short; it is important they not be forgotten. The original version of the book and its epilogue are available for sale at the Bridgeville History Center.