Sutersville honors fallen warriors with street signs

Like so many other small towns and villages that dot Westmoreland County, Sutersville has a memorial to those residents who served in the military.

Unlike many other small towns, however, Sutersville has gone a step further and has honored its war dead not only with a star by their name on its memorial to veterans but by renaming 14 streets and lanes in the small borough for those who never came home, “who left their families with a void,” that has never been filled, said Mark Ghion of Sutersville, who initiated the project four years ago.

“It’s a way to make sure they are not forgotten. Renaming the alleys makes it permanent. Maybe someone will look at the street signs and think about them, about their sacrifice,” said Ghion, a veteran of the Army’s 82nd Airborne in the 1980s, who created the “14 Sons of Sutersville.”

Sutersville Borough Council last year agreed to rename the streets and lanes, which were named after trees, said Amanda Way, borough secretary-treasurer. Those lanes chosen to honor the 14 military members were ones that would cause the least disruption to residents so they would not have to change their addresses, Way said.

The red, white and blue signs attached to poles or stop signs show the person’s last name and a lane or street, in white letters, with a red background.

A middle row has the person’s full name and their unit written in blue with a white background. The top tier has the date they died and the war in which they served, against a blue background.

The concept of renaming the streets in memory of the veterans came when Ghion spoke at a service at the town’s memorial and realized he did not know about those who had died. He wanted to learn about those native sons, so he continued to investigate, using his knowledge about military records to uncover more information. He even created a Facebook page to the “14 Sons of Sutersville” at Fourteen Sons of Sutersville-Memorial Page.

Four died during World War I, eight died in World War II and one died in the Korean War.

One soldier, Joseph Feltes, died in November 1945, from a fall from the Great Pyramid in Egypt, Ghion said.

Most of them were brought home to be buried in the Sutersville area, but the remains of World War II B-17 navigator William Green, whose bomber was shot down in Germany, have not been identified yet through DNA testing, Ghion said.

After the borough agreed to rename the streets, the Westmoreland County Department of Public Safety was notified to place those alley names on the agency’s 911 map so dispatchers would send emergency responders to the correct address, said Ghion, who is chief of the Sutersville Volunteer Fire Department.

More signs are needed to mark the alleys where they meet streets in the borough, Way said.

The borough has ordered additional signs and expects to install them at those specific alleys this spring, Way said.

In addition to the alley signs, Way said the borough will rename its park along First Avenue, the “14 Sons of Sutersville Memorial Park,” Way said.

“The park will finally have a nane,” Way said.

Ghion said he wants to erect a sign with the names and photos of those who died. He said he still needs photos of Albert Waters and Peter and Joseph Feltes, who were cousins.

The fire department plans to rename its park along First Avenue in memory of Daniel C. Bain.

He survived the infamous Bataan Death March when thousands of Americans became Japanese prisoners after the surrender of Corrigidor in the Philippines in 1942. But he died in a Japanese prison camp before American special forces conducted a daring raid to free those prisoners, Ghion said.

With these efforts, Ghion said, those who died serving their country “will be given recognition more than once a year at Memorial Day.”