cKeesport City of McKeesport News
Recognizing the Vietnam Veteran
On November 12 , the McKeesport Regional History and Heritage Center hosted a slideshow presentation called , “ Recognizing the Vietnam Veteran .”
Walt Yager , a heritage center member and longtime advocate of native McKeesporters who were killed in Vietnam , shared a special presentation that his grandson Sean Yager produced for a community service project in 2004 .
Yager ’ s discussion focused on the McKeesport 23 , which includes the 11 young men who are memorialized at the LaRosa Boys and Girls Club with a monument that is thought to be one of the first Vietnam memorials in the nation .
The “ McKeesport 23 ,” in the order they died , are Pfc . Norman Wallace “ Boots ” Johnson ; Pfc . Michael Nemchick ; Pfc . Michael Dennis Pliska ; Pfc . James Francis Brooks Jr .; Staff Sgt . Thomas John Winklevoss ; Pfc . Tyrone Gregory Burse ; Gunnery Sgt . Raymond Gibel ; Pfc . James West ; Staff Sgt . David Lloyd George Moser ; Lance Cpl . Gregory Francis Popowitz ; Spc . Curtis Taylor Gay ; Lance Cpl . Thomas James Sweeney ; Pfc . Louis Howard Huff II ; Maj . Jack Claire Plumb ; Spc . John Alan Germek Jr .; Spc . James Robert Long ; Pfc . Tibor Sotak ; Petty Officer 2nd Class Patrick McNelis ; Silver Star recipient 1st Lt . Richard Michael Arnovitz ; Pfc . Kenneth Jordan Kline ; 1st Sgt . Donald Robert Donaldson ; Capt . Terry Jack Martell ; and Spc . Vincent Edward Galka .
28 McKeesport Area
McKeesport and Versailles Cemetery Tour
The McKeesport Regional History and Heritage center hosted its second annual walking tour of the McKeesport and Versailles cemetery .
“ Although we talk about some of the more affluent and well-known McKeesporters of the past , we go under the pretext that everyone has a story ,” the center ’ s executive director Robyn Tedesco said . “ Not everyone is a Cox or a Crawford , but all of these people have a story that has significance to the community . They all have a prominent place in McKeesport ’ s history .”
Community members dressed as historic figures , including William Sample , a Civil War soldier who carried President Abraham Lincoln from Ford ’ s Theater ; Helen Richey , the first female commercial airline pilot ; George Washington Simmons , the city ’ s first black police officer ; and Joseph Wampler , telescope manufacturer .