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To St. Agnes Alumni Association "Online Golden Jubilee Booklet" - 50th Anniversary Reunion
St. Agnes
The St. Agnes Alumni Association’s "Golden Jubilee"
The year 2006 will
herald the 60th Anniversary of our St. Agnes Alumni Association. I'm not
aware of any plans to celebrate this remarkable occasion, and even if one is
contemplated, considering the planning and notification time required, the
relatively small attendance at our 50th
Golden Jubilee, and our Alumni’s advancing ages and health, there may not
be sufficient attendance to warrant one.
Regretfully, Joe
Rosen, “Beaver” O’Rourke, John Manganaro, and other "old timers,"
both Nuns and Alumni, have died since we celebrated our 50th
Anniversary. The Golden Jubilee was also appropriately used to
dedicate three Plaques; one expressing the Alumni’s "Thanks" to
the Nun's, and the other two "re-dedications” of plaques recovered from
the old gymnasium after St. Agnes closed.
(One was in honor of Coach Faulk and the other in remembrance of St.
Agnes Alumni who paid the "Supreme Sacrifice.”
With this in mind, even should there be a 60th celebration, for those who
were unable to attend the 50th Anniversary banquet on 24 August 1996, and even
for some of those who did attend, I
thought it appropriate and timely to publish the verbal remarks I made at the 50th Anniversary Grand
Banquet. (Many present that evening
mentioned that they did not receive the full benefit of my remarks, and
several requested copies that I didn’t have at the time). The attached written
remarks are verbatim from what I said, except for minor editing changes and
omitting a couple of repetitive paragraphs.
And to make the “reading” more interesting, I have taken the next step
by adding pictures that were taken at both the "Plaque Dedication
Ceremony" and Grand Banquet, and included other appropriate images
and graphics that clarify certain of my remarks with example or explanation.
The substantive historical data about St.
Agnes contained in these remarks, with considerable background information about the Kids', the Nun's, the
Counselor's, Coach Faulk, and now the Alumni. is the kind of information
we'd want to preserve, and I can think of no
better place to permanently store it
than on our very own St. Agnes Alumni web site (http://www.stagnesalumni.org)
where alumni, family, friends, the religious community, and future researchers
can all avail themselves of this contribution to the history of our School and
Association. This is the very purpose for which David Feliciano, his brother
Peter, Joe Stanaitis and others, worked so hard to establish such a web site.
My brother Jim substantially collaborated with me on
the written remarks, and with my adding the pictures and graphics, the result
is an interesting history of our St. Agnes Alumni Association members and
caretakers, especially during and a few
years following the W.W.II era.
Only the Good Lord
knows where any of us will be for the "60th” or subsequent
Anniversaries, or other such gatherings, but with so many of us now in our
70’s and 80’s, this is another good reason to retain and add this “history” of
our beloved Association to our archives.” With all this in mind, attached is a
copy of my "Golden Jubilee" address. I hope all enjoy the
"read."
1st Lt. Gerald F.
Merna USMC (Ret.)
(St. Dominic’s 1942-1944; St. Agnes 1944-1946) (12Oct2005)
St. Agnes
Alumni Association
Golden
Jubilee
August 24,
1996, 50th Anniversary Celebration
Evening
Program
Greeting
and Opening Remarks: Mr. Joseph A. Rosen
Welcome: Sister Kathleen Kane, O. P., President, Sparkill Dominicans
Master of
Ceremonies: Mr. Paul Fabrizzi
Opening
Address: Lt. Gerald F. Merna, USMC (Ret.) (1944)
Comments
and Anecdotes: Art Kingsley, Alumnus
(1941);
Richard
Irizarry, Alumnus (1953); James P. Dunn, Alumnus (1956)
Presentations
& Door Prizes: Frank Asciolla
Closing
Comments: David McMillan
***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****
HOUSE’S KIDS:
FROM THE BALLFIELDS
OF ST. AGNES
St. Agnes Baseball Team, Sparkill, New
York, 1940
Back: Burns; T. Kubanic; Miller; Sokol;
Walsh; Brannigan; Santacrocce; Inrequez, Coach Faulk
Bottom: Keegan; Shay; Paulo; P. Kubanic;
Amato; Voyicky; R. Rosario
(Photo Courtesy of Bob Millspaugh)
TO THE BATTLEFIELDS
OF WAR
| Summer 1945: L.to R.: Frank Sutter; US Merchant
Marine; Matthew McSherry, US Navy; Coach Faulk, US Marine Corps; Bob Millspaugh,
US Army; Wellington, US Navy (Photo: Courtesy of Bob Millspaugh) |
January 1953:
TSgt Jerry Merna, SSgt Bob Antonacci, Sgt. Jim Merna All St. Agnes Alumni 1stBn, 5th Marines, 1stMarDiv, Korea |
October 1952: Cpl Dick Feldman, TSgt Jerry Merna |
REMARKS OF GERALD F. MERNA*
AT THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY DINNER
REUNION OF THE
ST. AGNES ALUMNI ASSOCIATION
OF
SPARKILL, NEW YORK
AUGUST
24, 1996
Good evening. Before
I begin, I want to thank Joe Rosen
and Art Kingsley, and other members
of the Alumni Executive Board, for
inviting me to speak tonight. I also
want to thank Art for sending me copies of all the World War II newsletters and
other notes from that era, which provided great research material for tonight’s
remarks. Also, very special thanks to my brother Jim, a professional public
affairs executive, for his immeasurable
help in working with me in preparing tonight’s address.
Joe Rosen,
Alumni President, and Jim Merna, Assn. Public Affairs, discuss details of
“Plaque Dedication Ceremony, “ as Fr. Jorn, following his blessing of the
congregation, listens to Art Kingsley’s remarks at St. Agnes Alumni
Association’s Golden Jubilee and “Plaque Dedication” ceremony, August 24, 1996,
Sparkill, New York
What a glorious occasion this is – the 50th Anniversary of our
St. Agnes Alumni Association. I’m honored
to be tonight’s speaker, though I’ve been asking myself since I received the
invitation to speak why I was given
this honor. I say this with utmost
sincerity because as I look out at this audience and not only see who is here
tonight, but recall other distinguished Alumni members who may not be with us
tonight, I can think of many other former “House’s Kids,” as we were called,
who were more active in alumni affairs and better qualified than me to be
tonight’s speaker. I’m very pleased I
was invited, however, and I hope that in my remarks I will be able to recapture
some of the many memories we all have of St. Agnes. I not only want to talk about what St. Agnes meant to each of us
in our own lives growing up, but also about the warm place it continues to hold
in our hearts.
I
am also pleased that so many wives and family members are here with us for this
grand anniversary reunion banquet.
Clearly, St. Agnes is very much a part of their roots – it certainly was
a major part of ours. While I am on the
subject of wives and family members, I hope you will permit me a moment to
introduce members of my family who
are sharing this evening with us tonight.
Standing L.toR. Vivian (Merna) Rendes; Matt Merna; Matt
and Jennifer Merna
Jerry and Jim Merna. Seated: Jennifer Merna;
Dot
(Sedlack) Merna; Linda (Merna) Figura; Sue Merna
I’ve already mentioned my brother and friend, Jim, who is here tonight
with his lovely wife, Sue, a registered nurse who has put up with Jim’s
shenanigans for over 30 years. Jim and Sue live in suburban Maryland outside
Washington, D.C. Take a special bow, Sue, you’ve earned it! With Sue and Jim is one of their four sons, Matt, and his wife Jennifer,
both of whom lives and works in New York City.
Matt is a CPA and Jennifer, who used to work with me in advertising in
the Washington, DC area, is with the J. Walter Thompson advertising
agency. Both are graduates of West
Virginia.
Jim &
Sue Merna Vivian (Merna)
Rendes Bob Merna Rich Merna Tom Merna
Also at our table, coming all the way from Sun City West, Arizona for
this special occasion is our one and only sister, Vivian. She spent far more years at St. Dominic’s
than any of us did at St. Dominic’s and St. Agnes combined! How wonderful to have her with us tonight.
Our brother Bob is in California, retired from State government. Brother Richard, who was in Korea with Jim
and me, is 100% disabled from the Marine Corps, living not very far from Jim
and Sue in Maryland. Youngest brother
Tom is living in California.
Linda (Merna)
Figura Son Gerald T. Merna and his Wife Diane
Dorothy (Sedlack) Merna, TZHS Class of ’48
with Sons Max and John
I’m also pleased that one of our two children was able to break away
from the congressional battles now going on to join us – our oldest, the mother
of our two grandsons Max and John, our daughter Linda. Our Son, Jerry (Gerald T.), is the chief
photographer for the U. S. Postal Service and because he does considerable
travel he was unable to join us.
Finally,
saving the very best for last, the
love of my life, my partner, my bride
of over 45 years, former Tappan Zee cheerleader, prettiest girl in our class of
1948, mother and grandmother of our children and grandchildren, born and raised
in Piermont, my wonderful wife, Dorothy M. (Pint) (Sedlack) Merna. Thank you for allowing these family
introductions.
One point we can all readily agree upon, is that the moral values by which we live have been forged in large measure by the Dominican Sisters of Sparkill, New York. (And for many of us, also the good
Sisters of St.
Dominic’s (Blauvelt,) and St. Agatha’s (Nanuet). Each of us may adjust to the changing times, but we continue to
cling to the basic core values we were taught at all three Catholic Homes.
I want to talk briefly on the topic of values, and discuss it in the
context of a current troubling development. As Jim mentioned in my introduction
I served over 22 years in the Marine Corps, in two wars and during peacetime,
and in many places (including recruiting duty in Nyack, NY). Values have always been the cornerstone of
the Marine Corps, which is why I loved it, and
still do!
Jerry Jim Rich
John
Not only were the three Merna brothers
Marines, but one of Jim’s four sons, John, proudly serves today as a Marine and
is a veteran of Desert Storm. And not
one of us House’s Kids could have had a better role model than our late beloved
Coach Jim Faulk, who led Marines into battle in the Pacific during World War
II. I’ll have more to say about Coach
shortly.
But back to the topic of values.
I was a bit dismayed last month when the new Commandant of the Marine
Corps made a major announcement about the young Marine of today. It was the banner headline on the front page
of The Washington Times, July 5, 1996, proclaiming, “Marines add value training to boot camp.” The sub-headline read, “Commandant Krulak troubled by moral deficiencies among today’s
recruits.” What General Krulak (whose father I served under in
Vietnam), had to say is so important and timely involving the youth of America
that I want to read a few short paragraphs from that story.
QUOTE:
“General Charles Krulak, the Marine Corps Commandant, has ordered an extra week
of basic training for new Marines – not for more marching or marksmanship, but
for some frank talk about values. The Corps is now drafting a plan … to extend
entry training from 11 weeks to 12. By
October, recruit companies arriving at the Marines’ two training centers,
Parris Island, SC and San Diego, will find they need to learn as much about
honesty and loyalty as they do about the M-16 rifle.
“A
senior Marine Corps official … said the new lesson plan will dictate that drill
sergeants sit troops down for heart-to-heart talks on courage, fidelity and
other values.
“We
intend to expand our values-based education because we’ve reappraised the raw
material we’re getting in and the communities they are coming from have put
less emphasis on ethical standards and those kinds of core values we want to
see. “We’re trying to address what we
see as deficiencies to bring them up to speed.
“They’re
not teaching values in schools. They’re
not learning it from church members to the extent they used to. So there is a need that needs to be stressed
in a values-based education.” UNQUOTE
As troubling as this development is, I think General Krulak is on the
right track and I fully support him – and I feel many in this audience do
also. Times have indeed changed,
certainly from when I joined the Marines at age 17 almost 50 years ago, less
than a year after I left St. Agnes.
All of us here tonight can recall when we were first taught the basic
values of honesty, loyalty, fidelity,
love of God and country. We learned
these values, and more, as students at St. Agnes, in the classroom, at chapel,
in the dormitories, and on the ball fields and playfields, by the daily example
of the nuns, priests, coaches, teachers and counselors at St. Agnes. Many good nuns looked after us, and, of
course risking not including all of them, to name just a few, Sr. William
Vincent, Sr. Barnabus, Sr. Immaculate, Sr. Adelaide, Sr. Ignatia, Sr. Adrian,
Sr. Rose Anastasia, Sr. M. Bernardine, and Sr. M. Winifred who died in 1990 at
age 103!
A few of “her boys” surround Sr. Ann Catherine as she joins her Sister Nuns in cutting
the 50th Anniversary cake
And don’t think for a minute I forgot
to mention Sr. Ann Catherine, who we are so pleased, is here with us tonight.
Sr. Ann Catherine probably knew most of us better than anyone since she served
most of her time at St. Agnes, as Principal, social worker, head of the choir
and band, and with so many other duties.
Sr. Ann Catherine, for those who may not know it, celebrated her Golden
Jubilee in 1983, and is now remarkably, I believe, in her 63rd year as a Dominican Nun. What a record of service to God!
Through the years we are also indebted to so many others who cared for
us, nurtured us, and saw worth and promise in each of us as individuals, at a
time in our lives when we needed it most.
Foremost among them is Coach Jim Faulk, who devoted his life to St. Agnes and the thousands of
boys who were brought up there. Until
the day he died in 1985, he inspired House’s Kids all his life.
Coach James Faulk, Col., USMCR (Ret.)
and Plaque re-dedicated to him for his dedication to and leadership of the youth
of St. Agnes, and his initiative in building a new
gymnasium for St. Agnes Kids, proposed by him during World War II
(Plaque Photo by G.F. Merna; Faulk Photos
courtesy of Bob Millspaugh)
Some of us were present with Joe
Rosen and Art Kingsley when Coach Faulk was inducted into the Rockland County
Sports Hall of Fame in 1978 as “Mr. Everything at St. Agnes – athletic
director, guidance counselor, social worker, disciplinarian and trainer, in
addition to varsity and junior varsity coach for all sports.” Who will ever forget what he said then. Quote: “I received this honor only because
of the gutsy kids I coached at St. Agnes."
Unquote.
I know Coach Faulk was quite pleased
when my brother Jim and his wife Sue named their first born son James Faulk Merna, in his honor, and even more
so when his namesake graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis as an
Ensign in the Class of 1987.
June 22, 1985: Funeral Brochure, St.
Dennis Cemetery August 10, 1985: Memorial Service, Sacred Heart Chapel
(Courtesy
of Bob Millspaugh) (Courtesy of Jim Merna)
Along with Bob Millspaugh and my
brother Jim, I was at Coach Faulk’s graveside in Ardmore, PA when he was laid
to rest there in 1985. We represented
the thousands of St. Agnes men that he developed over many years. Seeing his wife Betty and many members of
his family that day was a side of Coach most of us had never seen. I never knew he had such a large, loving and
caring family. With all the love he
gave to us, we never knew he had any left to share with anyone else—but he sure
did!
When I got back I wrote a note to Mrs. Faulk sharing with her a 1953
letter the Coach wrote in response to one I sent him describing a particularly
rough night on an Outpost in Korea. His
“Marine to Marine” reply, which is in my bible at home, was also like all the
letters he wrote to his St. Agnes men in service in World War II—full of
encouragement and understanding, peppered with news about the St. Agnes sports
teams, and the excitement that occurred when a fire broke out in the Men’s
House.
Coach also provided his astute views on the political scene affecting
the Korean War when he wrote, “(President)
Eisenhower is making progress but even he is only the tool of the politicians
and you can rest assured they will take their time in arriving at any truce
solution.” He was so right!
TSgt. Jerry Merna in Korea awaits the
visit of
Commander-in-Chief /President Eisenhower
Coach Faulk may be gone now, but
he’ll never be forgotten by anyone ever connected with St. Agnes. Mrs. Betty Faulk, a registered nurse, passed
away three years after Coach on June 9, 1988, at age 77. She and Coach were married for 43 years! What a marvelous couple!
So, how did we get to where we are today, with our Alumni Association
celebrating its golden anniversary—a fraternity of brothers united in purpose,
spirit and friendship?
It all began 50 years ago, in 1946. It was then that two of our most illustrious
members here with us tonight—Joe Rosen and Art Kingsley, and a handful of
others, met informally following a visit to St. Agnes for Midnight Mass. After exchanging war stories and Christmas
greetings, Coach Faulk met with the small group and gave a stirring talk on the need for an Alumni Association. Everyone
readily agreed—and Joe Rosen was elected “temporary President.”
A temporary advisory committee was formed, consisting of Henry Holdner,
William Pizzaia, Robert Rosario, Art Kingsley and Dan Reilly. Nominated as
Secretary was John O’Sullivan. Named as
honorary members and advisors were Mother M. Beatrice, Sr. M. Stella, Sr. M.
Ignatia, and Sr. William Vincent. The
purpose of the Alumni Association, as stated then, was twofold: (1) To honor those of our Alumni who made
the Supreme Sacrifice, and (2) To do something for others.
Gloria and Art Kingsley Joe Rosen and
friends at Plaque Dedication
Words are inadequate to express the
gratitude we owe to leaders like Joe and Art and his wife Gloria, for the
vision they had and the service they have rendered to St. Agnes and our Alumni
Association. They have led and guided
our organization to preeminence for the
past 50 years. And can you believe
that Joe has been the “temporary President” for the past 50 years? Don’t we all
agree it’s time for Joe to be named “Permanent President”?” And by the way,
Joe, many of us wonder where you get all those wonderful jokes you include in
all your newsletters. You could have
been a world class Comedian!
Here’s a couple for your future consideration: “Joe and Art went into Tony’s Lobster House and asked former “House’s
Kid” and Owner Richard Irizary, “Do you serve crabs here?” And Richard said, “Why yes gentlemen, we
serve anybody here.”
Another: Is it true Joe you carry
your watch in your back pocket so you will never be behind time? And finally, Joe, do you know why the turtle crossed the Road? To get to the Shell Station!
Some have called your jokes corny, Joe—but not me! Now you
have some small appreciation for how we
Alumni felt after reading your
newsletter jokes! But keep ‘em coming!
On
a more serious note, thanks Joe, for your many
years of devoted service, and for all those great and informative newsletters,
annual reunion picnics and dinner dances, and your support on our behalf of our
priests and nuns missions both here in the U.S. and abroad. You have been and remain “a true and loyal
son of St. Agnes!”
I want to say a few things about some of our common experiences at St.
Agnes, especially those of our Alumni who made the “Supreme Sacrifice” in
defense of our country. I also want to
talk about the House’s Kids who served their country with great distinction in
World War II.
”Our Gang,” St. Agnes Kids, Sparkill, NY
Most of us House’s
Kids were shaped by two major forces: the Depression and World War II. Many of us came to St. Agnes because of the Depression. Many were true orphans; some of us had
either a father
“The
Gang, Who Are We?” (Edward Jenkins,
1953 – 1959 says “I am the |
(Fr
L) Jim Lawson; (Fr R) |
(Photos courtesy St. Agnes Alumni Web
Site)[1] or a mother – some
had both – but a good number of us were sent here either because we were
abandoned or because someone could not or would not take care of us. Regardless, when we came to St. Agnes, it
would be “home” for most of us until we were 17 or 18 years old. Many of us chose “academics” and attended
Tappan Zee High School, then located in Piermont, another town over. 
Piermont High School Building, built 1898 to 1900,
named Tappan Zee High School (TZHS) in 1901.
It was demolished from its Piermont location and replaced with a “mega”
TZHS in Orangeburg, NY
(Photo courtesy of Rockland
Review, Friday, July 11, 2003)
Others with
vocational aptitudes received “shop training” at St. Agnes, with electricity
taught by Mr. Stevens, carpentry by Mr. Metcalf, and auto mechanics by Mr.
Fedor.
We did some fun things in those days
of the 1930’s and 1940’s, and a few wild things too. Remember when we: “smoked
behind the coal bin, played basketball in the ice house and ice hockey on
the lake, went bean picking for 10 cents a bushel, and caddying at the Rockland
Country Club up on 9W, walked to Tappan Zee High School in the days before
busing in all kinds of weather, attended Midnight Mass in the main chapel
on Christmas eve, saw the Nuns pets going to Saugerties (a town located between
the Catskill Mountains and the Hudson River, ninety miles north of New York
City and 40 miles south of Albany) for a bit of vacation every summer, got
a “baldy” (haircut) after running away, (though I wasn’t “caught” when I ran away, I nevertheless got my “baldy”
at Parris Island), and when one kid got the mumps or chicken pox every
kid got it. Yeah, those were the fun
days, never to be repeated!
We also had the best athletes and the best teams in those days – in
football, baseball, and basketball.
Coach Faulk, and in his absence during World War II, Lenny Sullivan,
inspired and molded their kids to athletic greatness.
St. Agnes
Football Team, Unknown Year Quarterback
David Feliciano
(Photos courtesy St. Agnes Alumni Web
Site)
(Photos courtesy Greg Flotard (no. 9 in
picture) and St. Agnes Alumni Web Site)
Some of the better athletes (from an earlier era) who readily come to
mind, just to mention a very few since there were so many over the years,
were: Jim Shea, Andy Paulo, Paul
Tarantino, Eddie Loniewski, Henry Farmer, Desi Pascal, Ed Kelly, and the
Feldman brothers. Our uniforms were
pretty ragged until Coach Faulk made contact with the Military Academy at West Point. He hit it off with them and soon we
were getting a lot of their used and surplus equipment. Pretty soon we were called by some
St. Agnes Band Members 1957 USMA Corps of Cadets, West Point John Antonacci, St. Agnes Miler
1951 At West Point Military Academy
as the “Little Black
Knights of the Hudson,” wearing Army’s old uniforms. I remember when Coach
Faulk tried to get the New York Military
Academy (NYMA) (Cornwall, NY) to
play us in sports. But they wouldn’t
hear of it. Why would a fancy prep
school, a feeder for West Point, want to play with a rag-tag team from a Home
for Boys? So Coach Faulk was forced to
resort to a little fib. He told NYMA that we were St. Agnes “Academy,”
or St. Agnes “Prep,” as I recall. Bingo! Coach Faulk had said the magic
words. Soon enough, we were playing
them on a regular basis, and beating the hell
out of them as well.
Coach Faulk also got us a football
game against a Catholic school, St. Cecelia’s in Englewood, New Jersey. That school’s coach, just starting his
career, went on to great prominence as one of the winningest coaches in the NFL
with the Green Bay Packers and the Washington Redskins. His name – Vince Lombardi. I also
remember when Coach Faulk got Yogi Berra
and a few other New York Yankees to visit us at St. Agnes and hit a few balls
with us. The year was 1946 – Yogi’s
first year up with the Yankees, after getting out of the Navy along with his
buddy Joe Garagiola.
When war broke out in 1941, many of
our kids went directly from the playfields and ball fields of St. Agnes to the
battlefields of War and other accomplishments.
During World War II they would serve
on the beaches of
Normandy to the sands of Iwo Jima, joining the millions of men and machines and
sharing the horror and heroism that marked every stage of World War II – from
blazing naval engagements, hand-to-hand combat and stupendous air
battles—struggling from North Africa to Italy, across Europe to Berlin, and
from Pearl Harbor to Tokyo. The House’s
Kids were in all of that, as St. Agnes kids went on to distinguish themselves
in all branches of the military, as well as the Merchant Marine.
Military Services Seals: Top: Dept. of
Defense; Dept. of the Army; Dept. of the Navy; US Army Air Corps; [2]
Bot: Dept. of Air
Force; Dept. of Navy-Marine Corps; [3]
US Coast Guard; US Merchant Marine [4]
The good Sisters had a newsletter then that was mailed out regularly
all over the globe to St. Agnes kids who were in the service. The newsletter had articles written by the
‘Sisters, by Father Nash, a few by Jim Shea, then a brother at Notre Dame, and
edited by John O’Sullivan and Henry Feldman.
And let’s not forget all the help supplied by Mrs. Elizabeth (Betty)
Herlihy, one of our Tappan Zee High
School teachers. Did you know she went on to have eight children of her own? And of course, they included inspiring
letters from Coach Faulk, then a Marine Corps Captain fighting in the Pacific.
Coach Faulk used to address his
letters “To the fightingest boys in the
world wherever you may be.” (Note: A copy of that original newsletter is
included at the end of these remarks). In one letter he wrote, “Now you are carrying
on for your school, your country and your loved ones in order that right may
triumph and peace is with us all for generations to come.” In a minute, I am
going to mention the names of a few of these boys, and highlight their heroic
service. In researching some of those
old World War II newsletters, I came across an early one containing a note from
the Sisters that said, “We now have the Gold Star with the number 10 on the
Service Flag which hangs from the Boys Choir in the back of the Chapel. The White Star numbers 555, although we know
there must be more than that number, there are many with whom we are not in
contact.”
Choir
Loft, back of St. Agnes Chapel
Just think about that! As the nuns said, they had 10 Gold Stars,
signifying that 10 St. Agnes kids had paid the Supreme Sacrifice. And the 555 White Stars signified that 555 St. Agnes kids were serving their
country as soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines. That’s unprecedented and unheard of – 555 kid from one
small Catholic school serving in the military during World War II. What other
school or community had sent so many
of their young men off to war? No
wonder Coach Faulk described his St. Agnes kids as “gutsy kids.”
Unfortunately, those
10 Gold Stars later increased to 40. We
had 40 St. Agnes kids ultimately killed in action in World War II. One of them
was our oldest brother George, a Navy Signalman Second Class, killed at age 19
when his LST was sunk by a Japanese submarine in the Philippines.
At St.
Agnes, September 1943 Prior to
shipping out 1943 LST (Landing
Ship Tank) (Low, Slow, Target)
I remember the day one of the
Sisters called me away from lunch.
After quietly speaking to me, I returned to my table where I suddenly
broke out crying. The other kids, not
knowing why, began to laugh. Then
Sister told them they just learned my brother, George Merna, was “missing in
action” in the South Pacific. The
fellows then rallied round me, and helped me get through that day.
Who were some of these other St.
Agnes kids who served with much courage and distinction in all of the major
campaigns and battles? I want to
mention just a few of the 555. Did you
know that we had six Carroll brothers
who entered the service just before the war was declared? They were all at Camp McClellan before they shipped out to the Pacific. Two of them, Dan and Thomas, were later
awarded the Purple Heart Medal. Charlie Loesch lost a leg in the muddy
mountains of sunny Italy. How brave and
courageous he was, never complained
and thanked God for having only that
loss. The newsletter reported he
cheerfully looked forward to being fitted with his artificial leg; SSgt William
Callahan went down in flames in August 1943, and was a POW at Stalag-17 in
Germany; Bob Millspaugh was missing in action, detained and later repatriated;
1stLt. A. J. Fabrizi, brother of our Master of Ceremonies Paul, was decorated
for completing 50 bombing missions over enemy territory with the 15th
Air Force in Italy; “Buddy” Francis Mahon had 3 operations at Walter Reed
Hospital to save his eye; Bill O’Donnell – two
Purple Hearts.
Japanese Flag Guam, Marianas Islands, WWII Army Captain Silver Star Medal
Jim Nestor was killed in action trying to prevent a breakthrough of
Japanese fanatics on a ridge in the Marianas; Dave Loeser, the first St. Agnes
kid to attain the rank of Captain, was killed in Luxembourg; Fred Napoli, a
paratrooper in Italy, was awarded the Silver Star and Purple Heart Medals;
Charles Foyder fought the Japanese in Burma as a member of the Army’s famed
Merrill’s Marauders; and William Londolfi was killed in the invasion of
Normandy. One individual who brings
tears to my eyes every time I think about him is Raymond Bannon. He suffered severe wounds during the fierce
fighting on the island of Saipan, and was hospitalized for 24 years! Raymond died in a
Veteran’s Hospital in 1992.
Heroes they were, these House’s Kids
– all 555 of them and probably more, who served their nation when duty
called. As did so many during Korea,
Vietnam, and Desert Storm.
Korean War Vietnam War