When 18 Local Boys Were Brought Home For Burial, 1947

 

October 26th  1947, the Joseph V. Connolly, the first ship to bring home World War II dead, arrived at New York, from Europe and Newfoundland.  Planes circled overhead, floral pieces floats on the harbor, and flags were at half staff.  Police estimated that 250,000 spectators watched the funeral procession.

On board were 48 from Central Pennsylvania. 

In 1947, several American ships were outfitted to carry coffins.  The ships then began the process of bringing America's War Dead home for burial.  The men had been buried in cemeteries overseas, but when the war was over, they were brought home.  The Ship SS. Joseph Connolly, shown above leaving the harbor at Belgium, carried more than 6,000 soldiers home.  Seventeen of them were local boys, from Lycoming, Montour, Northumberland & Snyder Counties.

The Connolly was one of eight ships refitted to carry heavy steel coffins. A parade of sorts followed the Connolly's docking in Manhattan as one symbolic casket was borne up Fifth Avenue to a memorial service held in the Sheep Meadow in Central Park. It was probably the quietest procession in New York history as 400,000 people stood along the route in silence as they honored the dead of World War II and wept.

Planes circled overhead, floral pieces floated on the harbor, and flags were half staffed.
More than  150,000 attended memorial services in Central Park, where "guns roared salutes, and church bells tolled."

"Most of those in the front section of the assemblage reserved for the next-of-kin held their composure, but some broke down.  Elderly women and small boys, joined by men in and out of uniform, gave way to their grief."

The procession made a stop at the Eternal Light, a memorial to the World War I dead in Madison Square.  A wreath was placed there.

The bodies of 15 fallen heroes from the Susquehanna Valley were on board.
Fifteen were European casualties, originally buried in the Henri Chapelle Cemetery in Eupen Belgium.  Two were from Argentina, Newfoundland, "central assembly point for the dead from Iceland and Newfoundland."

Eleven of the bodies were Northumberland County boys.  Two were from Lycoming County, two from Dauphin County, one from Montour County, and one from Snyder County.
Each of the 17 bodies were removed from the ship and transported to the Quartermaster Depot at Philadelphia.  From there the bodies were shipped according to the wishes of the families, either to a hometown cemetery or a national cemetery.

Those on board were:

1. Pfc Stanley O. Bohner,  Herndon PA
2. Cpl. Robert C. Emerick, Shamokin PA
3. Cpl Robert J. Farrell, McEwensville
4. S.Sgt Robert G. Fleming, Shamokin PA
5. Pvt Arthur H. Glase, Sunbury PA
6. S.Sgt William K. Gray, Milton PA
7. First Lt Jay E. Hoffman,  Shamokin Dam PA.
8. Pfc Earl S. Keiser, Milton PA
9. Pvt. John Lebo, Halifax PA
10. Pfc. Warren F. Lowery,  Danville PA
11. Pfc. Allen C. McCracken, Riverside PA
12. Pvt Claudius D Messner, South Williamsport PA
13. Pfc G Carson Miller, Northumberland PA
14. Pvt. Henry A. Payeski, Kulpmont PA
15. T.Sgt John G. Skopeck, Shamokin PA
16. Pvt. Warren A Snyder, Millersburg PA
17. Pvt Leroy L. Thompson Jr, Williamsport PA 
18. Pvt Joseph J. Yankowski, Mt Carmel PA

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Sketches

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For some of the local boys, The Daily Item ran "sketches" of their lives and service:

Pvt Arthur H. Glase, Sunbury PA

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Lt. Jay Edward Hoffman, Shamokin Dam

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Pfc. Stanley Bohner, Herndon PA

Pfc Earl S. Keiser, Milton PA

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Sgt William Kenneth Gray, Milton

A memorial service was held in Milton in 1944 for Sgt Grey, 3 years before his body was returned home to be buried in Harmony Cemetery.

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Pfc Allen C. McCracken

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Pfc. Warren F. Lowery

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Lest We Forget
An Index Of Stories & Photos Of Those Who Didn't Make It Home
And A Closer Look At Some Of The Memorials Erected For them.
https://susquehannavalley.blogspot.com/2021/05/memorial-day-in-valley-through-decades.html

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READ MORE

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"The United States is one of only a few nations that bring home its war dead. The British have buried them in foreign lands since the earliest days of empire. The Japanese try to return the spirits of their dead. And Russian and German dead from WWII are scattered all about where they fell, most of them unidentified.

It has been our nation's policy to bring back our war dead since the Spanish American War of 1898, when about 1,200 U.S. soldiers were returned. During World War I, 46,292 were returned from Europe while another 30,921 were buried in eight American military cemeteries in France.

The vast program after World War II is all but forgotten today. But the repatriation effort still goes on. Every year, the bodies of missing American soldiers from World War II are recovered, some in the remote jungles of places like New Guinea, or from the waters of the Zuider Zee in the Netherlands, where the bodies of American flyers are regularly recovered from wrecked aircraft dredged from the muck. Their remains are laid out on examining tables at the military's Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii. They are carefully analyzed, identified, relatives sought and found, and then these once lost soldiers are returned to their hometowns in America for burial.

From the Vietnam War to today's Iraq War, the nation's dead are flown home for burial. The casualties from Iraq are few, compared to World War II, but the pain and suffering for a new generation of families is no less great. And, the tradition established more than a century ago is still in place. America's fallen are all returned to home soil and to their families." - David P. Colley

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SS Joseph V. Connolly was a US Liberty Ship type Z-EC2-S-C5 that caught fire on the 12th January 1948 when on route from New York for Antwerp with a cargo of coffins. She caught fire and subsequently sank while in tow on the 29th January 1948. 

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United States Army transport ship SS Joseph V. Connolly leaving a harbor with the bodies of American servicemen. Official caption on front: "(NY14--Oct. 6) First U.S. War Dead Leave Belgium--The Army Transport Joseph V. Connolly steams out of the harbor at Antwerp, Belgium, Saturday with the first U.S. war dead from the European theater to be returned to American soil for burial. The transport, bound for New York, is carrying 5,600 bodies from the ETO military cemetery at Liege, Belgium.