Saturday, May 27, 2000

Day of emotion: Vets recall friends lost

---

Junior high observes holiday

By Mark Curnutte
The Cincinnati Enquirer

        The lights in the Dater Junior High School auditorium were dimmed, and the veterans had paraded out to a picnic.

WW II VETERAN JACK MATRE WIPES AWAY A TEAR DURING THE CEREMONY. (Glenn Hartong photos) | ZOOM |

        But Joe Russo and his younger brother Sam, two Navy veterans of the Korean War, went back inside. They stood alone late Friday morning at the oak panel bearing the names of the 159 Hamilton County residents who died fighting in Korea.

        “There's one right away, Charlie Duncan,” said Joe Russo, pointing to the name. “He went to school with me. Purcell, Class of '49.

        “Ed Engelhardt, he lived down on 13th Street. I should have brought my high school annual. I can't remember all the names.”

        The Russo brothers were among the more than 100 veterans honored at Dater's third annual Memorial Day program, which has grown into one of the region's largest school-based holiday events. The engraved wooden plaque listing the county's Korean War dead was unveiled during the 90-minute ceremony.

        Last year, Dater, a Cincinnati Public School in Westwood, dedicated panels honoring Hamilton County's 1,855 World War II dead.

        Korean War veterans were chosen as this year's honorees because it is the 50th anniversary of the beginning of the three-year conflict that took more than 54,000 U.S. lives.

        The war started June 25, 1950, when North Korean Communist troops invaded South Korea. Five days later President Truman ordered U.S. ground troops into South Korea.

        Joe Russo got to Korea in March 1952 aboard the USS Iowa. He was responsible for supplies on the battleship, which bombarded the enemy with its big guns from the Sea of Japan.

VETERANS SAM (LEFT) AND JOE RUSSO. | ZOOM |

        Without Joe's knowledge, Sam — two years his junior — went into the Navy and requested duty on the Iowa. They served together until 1956. They were two of eight brothers — six of whom are veterans — born to an Italian immigrant father and brought up near 13th and Clay streets in Over-the-Rhine. Their mother, Marguerite, is 93 and lives in Westwood.

        “It's upsetting that we couldn't win the war,” said Joe Russo, 69, a retired Internal Revenue Service agent who lives in Bridgetown. “If the politicians had let the military use all of its resources, it would have been over.”

        As it was, he said, the 430,000 U.S. troops who came home from Korea had to deal with the stigma of being America's first military “losers.”

        “People looked down on us because we were the ones who, for the first time, couldn't finish the job,” Joe Russo said.

        Sam Russo, 67, a retired Colerain Township police officer, lives in Mount Airy.

        The Russos said they appreciated the recognition given them and other Korean War veterans at the Dater program.

        “It gives you a chill in your heart,” Joe Russo said.

        John Pitman, a Korean War Army veteran and former Schwab Junior High principal, was a featured speaker. He told Dater students, veterans and guests that once-common patriotic rallies should be revived.

        Another speaker, pizza baron Donald S. “Buddy” LaRosa, a U.S. Navy veteran, said people need to be reminded “what it takes to be a patriot. It's important to remember that so many families paid an awful price so we can enjoy this great life.”

        The Dater Concert Choir sang “Battle Hymn of the Republic.” Dater students read poems, including “In Flanders Fields,” in honor of veterans.

        “I tear up every year,” said Dater ninth-grader Lyndsay Hamer of Price Hill. “It makes me proud. It makes me think, "Wow. I really do live in a great country where people are willing to fight to protect people they don't even know.'”

        Dater's concert band and a band from Hugh Watson American Legion Post 530 played patriotic numbers. After Taps, the veterans band played the songs of each of the four major branches of the service, and veterans walked in by group.

        That's when the Russo brothers returned to the auditorium.

        “Until you see names in a group like this, you don't realize how many guys died and how many guys you knew,” Sam Russo said.

        “Joseph Teeters. We used to run around with him downtown.”

List of Memorial Day observances in the Tristate
       

---

Drivers dig deep to pay for fuel
Boats become crowd scene
Eraser caper sends lawyer to slammer
County, city face riverfront deadline
Day of emotion: Vets recall friends lost
Donated stone marks tiny grave
River unsafe on Ky. side
RAMSEY: Education
4th district GOP chairman to step down
Blue Ash dedicates city tower
Bring appetite, umbrella
Buses to cut fares during smog season
Dayton man sought in gas station holdup
Dog taken, owner cited after attack on girl, 5
Fairy tale gets contemporary spin
Get to it
Job fair comes to Lincoln Heights
Ky. horse country to hold Bush fund-raiser
Lockland chief defends officers
Massie student dies on senior-class outing
Police focus on seat-belt use
Police officer not guilty in jogger's death
Prison nursery a step closer
Songs spice up soup kitchen
Queen City's moments to shine reflected in book