43
United Veterans Council of Greater Youngstown Commander to be installed
AUSTINTOWN
William Pacak of Campbell will be installed as 2012 commander of the United Veterans Council of Greater Youngstown at its 71st Annual Awards and Install-ation of Officer Banquet on Saturday.
The event is at The Regency House Banquet Center, 3704 Mahoning Ave. The social hour begins at 5 p.m. and the dinner at 6.
The main speaker is retired Army Major Joseph M. Mersol of Canfield.
Also, the United Veterans Council will recognize Leo H. Connelly Jr. as Veteran of the Year and Jeffrey Vrabel Sr. as Citizen of the Year.
Other officers to be installed are: Rod Hosler, senior vice commander and treasurer; Connelly, junior vice commander; Barry Landgraver, adjutant; and Janette Brown, chaplain.
Pacak served in the Marine Corps during the Vietnam War and is the commander of Disabled American Veterans Chapter 2 in Youngstown and a member of American Legion Post 560 in Campbell.
Vrabel Sr., the son of Army veteran Joseph Vrabel, is commander of the Sons of the American Legion Squadron 15 and past state commander of the Sons of the American Legion.
He serves on the Post 560 Color Guard and Funeral Honor Guard and participates in many local programs concerning veterans. Vrable Sr. is employed as the transportation, grounds and facilities coordinator for the Columbiana County Education Services Center in Lisbon. He and his wife, Mary, and their two sons, Jeffrey and Kenneth, live in Poland.
Connelly, inducted into the Ohio Military Hall of Fame for Valor in 2011, served in the Army’s 1st Infantry Division as an infantryman and helicopter door-gunner in Vietnam from 1966 to 1968. While there he was awarded the Air Medal and the Army Commendation Medal, both for Valor, as well as the Combat Infantryman’s Badge and Air Crewman’s Wings.
Active in local veterans affairs, Connelly serves on the Mahoning County Veterans Service Commission, is a life-member of the DAV Chapter 2, AMVETS Post 44 and the Tri-State Detachment of the Marine Corps League. He has served as chaplain and junior vice commander of the Mahoning County United Veterans Council of Greater Youngstown.
Connelly is married to the former Doreen Golubich and has two adult sons and two grandchildren.
Mersol, a 1979 graduate of Poland Seminary High School and a 1983 graduate of John Carroll University with a bachelor’s degree in marketing, also is a distinguished graduate of John Carrol’s Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps, from which he was commissioned in the Quartermaster Corps.
He earned a master’s degree in financial services from the American College in 2007, and has been with New York Life for 17 years. He’s been married to the former Lee Ann Nalepa for 24 years.
Their sons, Matthew and Bryan, live in Poland.