Local families recall their young lost in war

By WILLIAM K. ALCORN

alcorn@vindy.com

EDITOR’S NOTE: Memorial Day is a day of remembrance for those who died in service of the United States of America. The National Holiday Act passed by Congress established Memorial Day on the last Monday in May, this year on May 29.

Remembering Donald Layfield

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US Army Sgt. Donald Layfield was killed in Viet Nam in 1970. His brother shares memories of the Leavittsburg man who made the ultimate sacrifice..

Memorial Day

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YOUNGSTOWN

For those who lost family members and friends defending America, Memorial Day is a special day of ceremonies in churches and grave yards and monuments, or maybe a moment of silence and bowed heads at a family picnic, where they mourn and remember and know, at least for brief times, their loved-ones lost to war are not forgotten.

But, they also remember privately, and for some, the passage of time has not abated their pain.

Here are vignettes about four soldiers and the friends and families they left behind to wonder what might have been – no college degree to celebrate, no marriage for which to prepare, none of that person’s offspring jumping around the Christmas tree.

ARMY SGT. ROBERT M. CARR

Carr was killed during his second tour in Iraq by an improvised explosive device on March 13, 2007.

“On Memorial Day, it will have been 3,730 days since Robbie was killed,” said his mother, Christine Wortman, as she and her husband, Bill Wortman Sr. of Champion, affix American flags to the sign designating the intersection of state Routes 45 and 82 as Sgt. Robert M. Carr Memorial Interchange, something they lovingly do annually just before Memorial Day.

Carr, a 2002 Champion High School graduate, is the son and stepson of Christine and Wortman and the son and stepson of Jeffrey and Cathy Carr. He was 22 when he was killed.

Christine and her husband also tie flags to the sign that designates the intersection of U.S. Route 422 and Route 82 as the Sgt. Marco Miller Memorial Interchange. Miller, a Warren native and son of Rene Miller Daniels, died Dec. 5, 2007, two days after he was injured by an IED in Iraq.

Though it has been more than 10 years since her son was killed, Christine said she sometimes wakes up at the time of his death, 1:31 a.m.

“Then ... reality sets in,” she said.

She said her other son, Army Warrant Officer Matthew P. Carr, who was injured twice, once each in Iraq and Afghanistan, stays in the military for his brother.

“To this day, when I see an official vehicle I don’t recognize, I pray it is not Matt,” Christine said.

Her daughter, Jennifer Dengel, and Jennifer’s husband are both in the Air Force. Her other children are Julie Larrica of Cortland and Rachel Miller of Farmdale.

A bartender at Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 3332 in Newton Falls, Christine said it helps her to work there.

“The members are like family; they help me through the bad days. My husband is my rock. He keeps me going,” Christine said.

“I’m very proud of Robbie, and I know he loved serving his country and wearing that uniform,” she said. “I know he died doing what he believed in and loved, but that doesn’t take away the pain. It’s so horrible when people disrespect the flag. They are so blessed that they don’t walk in my shoes.”

ARMY CPL. JAMES BOBOVNYK

Bobovnyk of Youngstown died Jan. 29, 1951, in prisoner-of-war camp No. 5 at Pyoktong County, North Korea, along the Yalu River.

Fred Bobovnyk’s jaws clench in anger when he talks about the remains of his older brother, James, not being returned home 60 years after his death.

“I still hate China and North Korea because of that,” said Bobovnyk, 81, of Weathersfield Township.

The Chinese reported James died on Jan. 29, 1951, saying he died of a heart problem.

But, Fred said a POW who was in Camp No. 5 for a time with James, said his brother died of pneumonia and malnutrition, which Fred is convinced was the true cause of James’ death.

Fred is one of nine children born to John and Elizabeth Bobovnyk. John, a World War I Army veteran, was a firefighter with the Youngstown Fire Department for many years. At the time, the family lived on Butler Avenue off Steel Street on the West Side.

Fred worked 38 years for Sohio/BP and was supervisor of retail sales in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan when he retired in 1996. He is the fiscal officer for Weathersfield Township, served on the township trustees for 13 years, and was a member of the Weathersfield school board from 1981 to 1992.

“I was 14 when military personnel delivered the telegram to my parents telling them Jim was missing in action. I’m sure my mother cried forever, but at the time I just knew he was missing. I didn’t fully realize I had lost a brother to these people [the Chinese],” Fred said.

He said he was 55 or 60 years old 9when he received a stack of Department of Defense documents several inches thick about his brother’s service record that made him “mad as hell.”

Several members of the Bobovnyk family have submitted DNA in the hope that James’ remains would match body parts recovered, but without success.

“I like to talk about my brother. He was a little older than me, but we were pretty close. Jim was a kind, gentle person and was a good friend to me and all his brothers and sisters,” Fred said.

“The main thing that still concerns me is that he’s still in Korea. It leaves a hole in my heart. In the back of my mind, I know that at some point in time I have to move on. If they would send remains back, even a bone, I think I would be OK. But, until that happens, I’ll still hate the Chinese and the North Koreans,” he said.

ARMY SGT. DONALD LAYFIELD

Layfield of Leavittsburg, served with B Company, 1st Battlion, 8th Calvary, 1st Air Calvary Division. Born Nov. 9, 1949, he died June 19, 1970, in Cambodia during the Vietnam War.

Donald was the youngest of six boys and two girls born to Paul K. and Florence Pearl Layfield of Leavittsburg.

His brother, John, recently gathered at his Warren Township home with two other brothers, Russell of Austintown and Ronald of Braceville, and their wives, to talk about the impact Donald had on their lives and the gaping hole left by his death.

John, of Warren Township, was home when the military car pulled up to his parent’s house.

“My mother knew right away. She screamed and cried and cried,” he said.

Russell learned of Donald’s death when an acquaintance he met at a local store asked what the military cars were doing at his house.

“My heart sank. ... I just knew what it was,” Russell said.

Ronald, living in New Jersey at the time, was notified by telephone by a family member.

“We feared it was going to happened because he was in dangerous situations,” he said. “The government told our parents that Donald was hit by a rocket. But a member of his unit told me he died from a single gun shot fired by a sniper.”

His brothers remember Donald as a quiet, athletic guy who liked fast cars and who loved to go bow hunting with them, especially on the family’s property in West Virginia. He was a 1967 graduate of Leavittsburg High School, where he ran track and had pitched a no-hitter in a Little League game.

And, he loved kids.

“He doted on his nieces and nephews, said Barbara Layfield, John’s wife.

“When he was working at General Motors Lordstown before he went into the Army, he would stop after work at my house almost daily and play with my kids,” Russell said. “He was practically like a son. I named my son after him.”

“For him to lose his life in Vietnam was a great shock for all of us. His death took a long time to get over. It was particularly difficult for mom and dad,” Ronald said.

ARMY CPL. RICHARD CHOPPA

Choppa of Hubbard, was a medic, assigned to Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 12th Calvary, 1st Calvary Division. He was killed Dec. 15, 1967, by multiple fragmentation wounds while trying to rescue a fellow soldier wounded in an ambush in the Vietnam War.

Richard’s parents, John and Rose Choppa Sr. of Hubbard, never recovered from his death, Vicki Warburton of Hubbard, said of her grandparents.

“It happened in December. His body was brought home on Christmas Eve, and Christmas was never the same afterward,” said Warburton, one of a multitude of Choppas in the Hubbard area, who was 2 when her uncle was killed.

“My grandmother’s heart was broken. Her joy was gone. She was just a different person,” said Walburton, a teacher at E.J. Blott Elementary School in Liberty.

Holidays were awfully hard, said Sandra Choppa, Richard’s sister-in-law.

His body had laid in the field for several days before it was recovered ,and he was barely recognizable when his body arrived Christmas Eve, she said.

Perhaps because the casket was closed, his mother always thought Richard was going to come through the door, Sandra said.

Christmas presents he had sent arrived before he did, she said.

Walburton said her father, Jack, who was five years older than Richard, could not handle his death. “He would not talk about it until the last five years of his life,” she said.

During that period, the family had a military memorial service on family property that included a 21-gun salute by the Trumbull County Honor Guard. Richard’s medals, including the Air Medal and Purple Heart, and an American flag were presented to his parents at the service.

Richard’s cousin, Dr. Ed Novosel, whose mother and Richard’s father were brother and sister, said they were both interested in medicine, but they took different directions.

Richard, a graduate of Hubbard High School, enrolled at Youngstown State University planning to study medicine and then went into the Army and became a medic.

A graduate of Youngstown’s Ursuline High School Dr. Ed Novosel went on to graduate from the College of Osteopathic Medicine at Kansas City University. Retired from private practice, he is associate medical director for St. Joseph Hospital in Warren.

“Richard was one class act. He was quiet and very patriotic. He was a good human being. He would have been tops in whatever he decided to do,” he said.

“To this day, I can’t watch a Vietnam War movie. I can’t bring myself to go,” Dr. Novosel said.

“Richard felt they really needed us [Americans military personnel] in Vietnam ... He thought he was making a difference,” Sandra said. “He was shot several times trying to help people wounded in the ambush in which he was killed.

“He wouldn’t have cared if it was the enemy. He’d would have helped him,” Sandra said.