After 60 years, a picture comes to life

I loved this photograph the first time I came across it while combing through The Vindicator’s files.

There are so many things about it that capture its time, 1951, a year that I’m not exactly expert on, given that I was in kindergarten. But I remember enough to know that men wore topcoats and suits to what we’d now consider the most unlikely of places — even to football games — and no one above a certain age walked around in sneakers. Keds were for kids.

I looked at these 77 men pictured hours from taking their oaths of induction into the Army or Air Force and marveled that they were all able to pack everything they would need into a gym bag. I imagined the mother of one of them happily bringing home the bag she found that had “Youngstown, Ohio” on its side and assuring her son that it would help him make new friends whenever anyone from Ohio saw it.

Off to Korea

And, of course, a rudimentary sense of history told me that many of these boys would be going to Korea. An equally rudimentary sense of probability told me that one or more was likely to go and not come back. The Army had 2.8 million Korean War veterans, of whom 37,000 died. That’s one in 75. In all, more than 53,000 American soldiers, sailors and Marines died in Korea; more than 103,000 were listed as wounded.

And so I asked Vindicator readers, especially those who recognized themselves in the picture, to share their stories.

And a few did.

I got a note from Nick Temnick, 82, of McDonald who described himself as one of the fellows in the back row, in front of the picture hanging on the wall. He said the left side of his head is touching the left side of the picture.

“I took my training at Fort Knox in the 105 Field Artillery; after training I was sent to Germany to the First Division, First Engineers HQ Company. I remained there for 18 months in the S4 section in water purification. What did I know about purifying water? The last six months were spent in the kitchen. They say don’t volunteer for nothing in the Army. I did, and it turned out pretty good duty.”

Nick asked that I pass along his address to any of the guys he served with, and I will do that if any call. (330 747-1471 ext. 1289)

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to contact Nick by phone, because there is an amazing coincidence on this page. I can’t do the math on this one. In the years ago column for 1935, there’s an entry about Chaney High School graduating its tallest class, and one of the three tallest graduates is Nick Temnick. It can’t be Korean-War-era Nick, because he would have been seven years old in 1935. A cousin maybe, or uncle, or pure coincidence.

Some called

I got a few phone calls, or brief messages, including one from Tom Hritzo of Youngstown, who said his wife, whom he married after the war, recognized him immediately, a couple of rows in front of one of the pillars. He served in the Army Signal Corps in Korea, came home and studied electronics under the GI bill and opened a TV repair shop. He retired from General Motors. He also recognized John Yohman and Joe Hritz in the picture and recalled that all served in Korea, but not together.

William Olive, 80, of Lowellville called to say that the picture brought back memories because he left for induction two months later and served in Korea. He remembers losing 28 pounds to seasickness on the Pacific crossing.

Mayor Jim Melfi of Girard wanted to let me know that his father, Nicholas, 80, got a kick out of the picture because he and a group of Trumbull County inductees left the same day, but from the Post Office, not the VFW Hall.

And then there was Richard Koker, 77, of Youngstown’s West Side, who wasn’t in this picture, but knew several of the guys from going to school together at Ursuline and from playing on teams in the Volney Rogers and Downtown softball leagues. Koker went to Korea as well, a year later, where he served for 21 months, 21 days.

He recalls he and his buddies in this picture — many of them from Smokey Hollow — had watched neighborhood heroes return from World War II when these boys were only 14 or 15 years old. And when they became men, they felt honored to do their duty in Korea.

He said he recognized Chubby DiGiaccomo and Nick Banko Jr., but it was difficult to pin down who was who over the phone.

Koker returned to Youngstown and worked for the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. for years. He knew my father-in-law, Phil Orlando, who worked in refrigeration, and a favorite uncle of my wife, Joe Richie, both of whom worked for “the tea company.” He spent his last 25 years of work with the Mahoning County Board of Mental Retardation, retiring in 2002.

A picture may be worth a thousand or 10 thousand words, but sometimes it takes a few hundred words to illuminate a photo. I appreciate the calls, the notes and, especially, the service these men gave beginning on a day 60 years ago in Youngstown.

X Mangan is editorial page editor of The Vindicator.