Ceremony for memorial honors Austintown veterans

July 26, 2013 at 5:48p.m.

austintown

Karen Brown Ruberto still cannot believe what his been done to honor her late husband, Army 2nd Lt. Charles Brown Jr.

Kristin O’Neil knows her father, Marine Sgt. James Prommersberger, would be honored by what has been to done to remember him.

Both men were remembered for their heroic actions in the Vietnam War, which ultimately took their lives, at the ground breaking ceremony of the Veterans’ Memorial at Falcon Stadium. The memorial will honor all veterans from the Mahoning Valley.

“I don’t even know what to say. I have been so excited about the whole project and everything and how they are honoring these two guys who deserve it,” Ruberto said.

The outdoor Veterans’ Memorial is an Austintown Class of 1962 project, with Jack Kidd and Larry Cadman officiating the process. Both Kidd and Cadman were close friends with Brown and Prommersberger and felt the need to honor them. In order to build the brick memorial, their committee sold pens made from the wood of the Fitch High School gym floor.

The committee has also received donations from Lencyck Masonry Inc. of Youngstown to oversee the monument, Bricklayers Local 8 of Austintown for the construction, Masonry Material Plus of Youngstown for mortar and concrete block, Youngstown Electrical Supply will donate lighting and Don Hall Excavating of Youngstown will donate services to grade, level and dig.

The monument will be about 12 feet in length and five feet high. Decorative brick and concrete engraved with “Fitch” from the old Austintown Fitch High School will be a part of the monument.

“Well, it has been about 14 months where we just fundraised and fundraised and fundraised — and it is about time,” Kidd said. “I got excited about seeing the dirt there.”