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Section of Interstate 80 to be named for Austintown fallen soldiers
By ROBERT CONNELLY
AUSTINTOWN
They won’t be forgotten. That’s the slogan from the Fitch Class of 1962 to families of two fallen soldiers who were a part of the class.
That phrase has spawned two memorials and, now, a highway dedication on Interstate 80 in Austintown.
Karen Brown Ruberto, who was married to Army 2nd Lt. Charles “Chas” Brown when he died in Vietnam, said she doesn’t know what she’ll think when she sees the sign. They were one day short of being married 18 months and had a daughter, Heather Kunka.
“I’ve always noticed on highways as you’re traveling you do see different ones ... named for different guys, and it’s a really good feeling. I can’t even imagine what I’m going to feel about this. It’s just going to be over the top,” she said with tearful eyes.
Kristin O’Neill and her brother, Dr. James Prommersberger, have been active in remembering their father, Marine Sgt. James “Jimmy” Prommersberger.
“I’m getting choked up at the thought” of the sign, O’Neill said. “The 1962 Class at Fitch said they would never let anyone forget these guys, and this community and Sen.Schiavoni have just made sure, with the help of the class of 1962, they’ll never be forgotten now.”
Sen. Joe Schiavoni of Boardman, D-33rd, Ohio Senate minority leader, introduced an amendment to the transportation bill last year for the highway dedication of a portion of I-80, between I-76 and I-680, to be named the “Marine Sgt. James Prommersberger and Army 2nd Lt. Charles W. Brown Memorial Highway.” A dedication ceremony, along with the sign installation, will take place this summer.
Jack Kidd, one of the class members, has been a catalyst for the project to honor the two men with whom he played three years of football. “The emotions over the last 2 1/2 years, it’s been like a roller coaster. When you talk about what these young men ... did, and knew the danger of what they were doing but they did it anyway — and it cost them their lives,” Kidd said. “I think the biggest thing about what they did was they never stopped fighting in the situations they were in. Never. Stopped. Fighting.”
Prommersberger died while rescuing men from a night firefight against 200 Vietnamese soldiers. He was hit rescuing the 12th man. Brown was the last man in his unit during a night firefight against 4,000 Vietnamese soldiers and killed 200 to 300 before he died.
The sign also means a great deal to Kenneth Jakubec, an active veteran in Austintown who served in the Marine Corps in Vietnam and also an Austintown Board of Education member.
“Their chances of making it out of there were not good, and to have this dedicated to them ... to have it named after them and the roads in Austintown, is a great honor,” an emotional Jakubec said. “I think any Vietnam veteran over there, regardless of where you’re from, to go by there and to see two Vietnam veterans on a plaque on a highway means a lot to them.”
“Fearless” was used by O’Neill, Ruberto and Kidd to describe the two men.
Originally the sign had been for a section of I-80 that was part of the Ohio Turnpike closer to North Jackson, but the turnpike commission does not allow naming sections of its roadway, Schiavoni’s staff explained. All parties agreed the dedication of the highway running through Austintown is a better location.
This comes after the Class of 1962, which Ruberto and O’Neill are honorary members, built an outdoor monument to the men, as well as bricks for other area veterans and a glass case inside Fitch High School featuring the two men’s stories and photos.
“We need to remember that when this all started the plan was to get a rock with a plaque. ... Then the community, this wonderful Austintown community, donated their time and money” and people got involved, O’Neill said of the past two years. “Yes, it’s to honor these veterans [who] were killed in action in Vietnam, but it’s also provided a memorial for all veterans to go and heal. I have witnessed that.”
O’Neill said she thinks of Ruberto as a second mother because her mother, Dana, and Ruberto were close friends. After both men died, “it was always the five of us. Heather, my brother and I and you and mom,” O’Neill said to Ruberto.
“A little sign on the highway is a small token of what we all should do. We all should pay respect to those families any time we can,” Schiavoni said. “This helps remind me, and hopefully remind other young people, about all the sacrifice that all the people in the past have made. You think about how these guys are from the Valley. They laid their life on the line to make our Valley stronger. ... We should do much more than that every day that we can.”
Officials from Schiavoni’s office said he also was involved with the dedication of the William Holmes McGuffey Memorial Highway on I-680 and the Navy Hospital Richard “Doc” Powell Memorial Highway at state Route 711 and state Route 11.