Char-Valley students honoring Korean War veterans
History teacher Bob Rodrigues along with students Allie Ferri, Colleen Fritch, Ellen Murphy, and Matthew Thomas. Not pictured, Adrienne Elion.
The World War II memorial at the far end of the high school football field.
A close-up shot of the memorial.
Last year, Chartiers Valley High School students re-dedicated a World War II plaque to the combat veterans whose 17 names are listed below the memorial bell on the far side of the district’s football field. This year, a group of juniors are trying to find local Korean War veterans who died in battle so they can be honored in kind.
“It’s not called the ‘Forgotten War’ for nothing,” said Bob Rodrigues, a history and civics teacher, “and the available research shows similarly why. It’s tough to find anything. So they’ve been hard at work scouring every database they can. Unlike the WWII dedication, this is ‘tabula rasa.’ They are starting from scratch.”
Rodrigues teaches and mentors the five-student team, and said part of what’s making the research so difficult is the lack of records.
“It’s different today … it was a personal tragedy for the family when word came back of a solider dying, but it wasn’t a media or record-keeping concern as much as it is now,” he said.
So far, the students have identified five veterans whom they could confirm died in the conflict. They’re still looking for more local veterans ahead of a May 22 dedication ceremony at the site of the WWII memorial.
The students found a key resource: a book titled “Almost Forgotten” by Bridgveille native Joe Oyler.
“The great thing about the book is it had pictures that Oyler was able to track down. All there: gravestones, them standing alongside other soldiers, and artifacts pictured that we could track down,” said Allie Ferri.
The book acted as a sort of Rosetta Stone for the students.
“We thought we had good info in the databases we were using,” said Matthew Thomas. “But, we couldn’t confirm times of death or where they were from. The book cleared that all up.”
The book cites personal interviews with families and friends of the soldiers who died. The confirmed veterans are identified as:
• Edward Kolessar, a former Upper St. Clair resident who served in the Army during World War II and the Korean War. He was a 1st lieutenant who was killed while leading an assault on a “Red” hill near Schyon-ni, North Korea, on Oct. 15, 1951. The men serving under him were so inspired by his actions they went on to force the enemy combatants from their positions to take over the hill.
• Robert Shipe, a Bridgeville native who served in the U.S. Army during World War II and the Korean War. He was a 2nd lieutenant who was killed by rifle fire on Oct. 19, 1951, at Chuktae-ri, North Korea. (Shipe and Kolessar were described as friends in the book. They died only four days apart and were buried on the same day).
• Harry Stringer, a Bridgeville High School graduate, served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War. Stringer was an Army sergeant who went missing in action in South Korea and was presumed dead on Sept. 6, 1950.
• Amos Jones, a member of the Bridgveille High School championship football teams in 1948-49, served in the U.S. Navy. He was killed in a plane crash near Reykjavik, Iceland, on Dec. 17, 1951.
• James Huey served in the Army during World War II and the Korean War. He was a sergeant who died on Sept. 26, 1954, when his ship sank during a typhoon while returning to America from Japan.
So the search continues, as the students are trying to contact family members and friends of deceased combat veterans from the Bridgeville, Collier, Heidelberg and Scott Township areas.
“Hopefully, we have a similar response to our dedication last year,” said Colleen Fritch. “There were people coming out of state to see the memorial.”
“There has to be more out there. People talk to each other,” Fritch continued.
“A lot of these men were friends. They lived right across from each other,” Ferri said.
“These kids are the movers and the shakers of their class,” Rodrigues said. “I encouraged them to take this project on because I had heard about them before they were even in my class. They are forming a legacy. Thirty years from now, they can come back and show their children, ‘I helped make that. I did the research to honor and remember our local fallen fighters.'”
Information and inquiries should be sent to cvmemorialteam@gmail.com or by calling 412-429-3721.