Verhovayak Lapja, 1945 (28. évfolyam, 1-52. szám)

1945 / Verhovay Journal

April 11, 1945

LET TRUTH BE UNCONFINED

CHICAGO BRANCH 503

I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of a man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavor.

—Henry David Thoreau

Some more mail has been received from overseas Verhovay members and we shall quote certain excerpts from them for the beenfit of our readers.

PFC. JULIUS NAGY (from) Detroit) who is with the 803rd Tank Destroyers wrote us on January 22nd from somewhere in Luxembourg, saying that he was glad to receive copies of the Verhovay Journal as “there was lots of interesting news in both copies....

I was also with the spearhead outfit crosing Belgium and Holland. [We really did get a great welcome, but never knew what was in store for us. We cross the Siegfried defenses. .. .1 am writing this letter from Luxembourg in the early mor. King hours, watching the artillery go.' opt. It pays a lot of times to Sleep in cellars as the ground is frozen and one cannot dig in very Well. “Bed jCheck Charlie” as we Call him, just flew over us. Just a Kraut flying by as it is a common every day occurence. But we have some very good AAA outfits. One Eight back in France, when we first came over, I saw them knock Sown 6 in a short while. It was better than any show I .ever saw. One sees planes crash in the movies but watching a German plane crash

5s the best I have seen yet.........I

Hon’t remember if I mentioned that I was attached to the 5th division of the 3rd Army.” Good to hear from you. Gyula and we hope to have more news from yyou soon.

PFC. JOHN SABO JR. (our Supreme Auditor) wrote recently from the Marianna Islands. He visited With the Baloghs and Huzianyis While in Chicago, enroute to the Pacific Coast. Writes he further: f‘ThiS is a very historic spot, the Käme of which I cannot reveal due to censor regulations. I flew on a four motored seaplane transport part of the way, then changed to ia land-based four-motor transport. iWe had a very exciting trip .... [My duties keep me busy during the

day. At night we attend training classes or stand a guard watch be cause of those troublesome Japs, for it is difficult to get rid of all of them at one time.” The best of luck to you MARINE PFC, and we do hope you will write us regularly.

In the last issue we mentioned about the Hungarians in Albany, Louisiana, and especially of the Ivanyicky family We should have added that there are three Ivanyicky boys in the services: Sgt. Paul who went ovevrseas recently: PFC. Louis, who is in service in India: and Pvt. Alex, who is with a field artillery unit in Belgium.

Of our own Branch 503 boys we mention Cpl. Eugene Petrovits, a radio technician on B-29 bombers, and who is now stationed in Alexandria, Louisiana. Gene was home recently, visiting his folks and said that he also visited with his aunts and grandma in Albany, Louisiana.

Pfc. JOHN HUZIANY wrote us several letters from Luxembourg. He is with an engineers outfit helping Patton. Wrote he on 2-24: “Patton awarded five bronze stars personally to one of our compa nies for building a certain bridge which the company named (deleted). . . . Our regiment is authorized three bronze stars for the Normandie Campaign, We’ll probably get more before this mess is over.” Fob a while we didn’t print anything concerning Johnnie, because those were HIS orders, but we take the liberty to do so now, and hope it is okeh. And CONGRATULATIONS for earning that PFC stripe, Johnnie! We understand it is tougher than the blazes to earn a PFC either in the engineers or the infantry.

ENSIGN EDWARD KURJACK dropped in Chicago recently while

THE RADAR MAN WITH A MICRO—MIND

f, - ______

By Staff Sergeant GEO POZSGAY, of Chicago Branch 503.

If you should see a man upon the street;

’A man equipped with a di-pole feet;

With a family of curves trailing behind:

He is a Radar Man with a micro-mind.

His eyes take on a neon gleam,

His ears extend to a yogi beam;

His mouth becomes another pulse-gate; ■

His hearth pumps blood at a video-rate.

With micro-seconds and micro-waves;

And micro-volts he fills his days,

And, thereby, in the course of time He develops a micro-mind.

This Radar Man, with the passing years,

Attained infinite impedance between his ears,

And finally succumbed to a heavy jolt

When he got what he thought was a micro-volt.

The Doc’ looked up from his micro-scope,

Turned to his colleagues and softly spoke:

(,No trace of brain can I find,

He is Radar Man with a micro-mind ”

enroute home to Chester, Penn, sylvania. The limited time did not allow Ed to visit longer with the Huzianyis, and Stephen regrets if------for Ed is a long-time friend of

Steve’s. By the way. . .Steve is god father to that little darling daughter of the Kurjaek’s——Belluska. Steve hopes the families may be able to visit with each other soon.

STAFF SERGEANT GEORGE POZSGAY (Branch 503), with the Very Heavy Bomb Department jn Florida, wrote of his share of difficulties, although he reports the weather “down yonder” is beautiful. He sent us. a descriptive poem of what a RADAR man is, and this is printed in another section of the Journal.

SERGEANT JOHN V. JERKOVICH.who spent 3 years with the Air Corps, transferred to the Infantry is somewhere in England. Writes he in part in -his February 18th letter: “Most you folks hae probably heard of the reinforcement plan oerseas. Well, I’m one of the

mere reinforcements-----»—so God

help the nation! But all kiddin’ aside, I’m not a bit sorry having to come here for my infantry training. They are cramming 17 weeks of basic into a few weks. . . For dinner this afternoon we had PORK ROAST (what was that?) — first time I’ve had that since I left home in April 1942.” And in his March 7th letter VIC writes to Stephen Huzianyi in part: “I was situated far away from where your brother John’s engineer regiment was serving. Once I finish my training here, I may wind up in one of the armies on the western front.. .Yesterday afternoon we spent digging fox-holes in defense tactics: really rough work and I can see vdiere this Limey soil is tough to dig into with this trench showel I am getting myself used to carrying the field pack and rifle around in our day’s training.” One would think that Vic, after three years of overseas, would be entitled to furlough, but the army apparently does not think so. However, we hope that Vic does get a break and come to the states before leaving for other duties, for his friends would like to see him. . . . and especially his fiancee, Ann Biro of Cleveland, Ohio, who is anxious for his safe return. We can only hope and pray that their wishes will come true.

Another of Pfc. JOHN BUZIANY’S letter reached us just as this column was being sent to the Home Office. Johnny writes from “somewhere from Germany” this time: “We turned in our Luxembourg and Belgium money for German invasion marks.. .The German people are different... .some of the countrysides are beautiful (which is untouched by the ravages of war). There are no swastikas in the windows like you see in the movies... .there is white flag, the flag of truce..

THE SCRIBE OF KŐSZEG

Verhovay Journal

TO THE CONTRIBUTORS

The next issue of the Journal will be published on Wednesday, April 25. Contributions for that issue should be in not later than April 18, Wednesday,

Contributions should be typewritten, on one side of the paper only, double-spaced, and not exceed 1200 words, or 6,000 letters. Address contributions to VERHOVAY JOURNAL, ENGLISH SECTION, 345 Fourth Ave., Pittsburgh 22, Pa.

Page 3

STORY of VERHOVAY HEROES’ PORTRAITS

TOLD BY PITTSBURGH’S ‘BULLETIN INDEX’’

The ‘BULLETIN INDEX,” Pittsburgh’s weekly newsmagazine, published a very fine article about artist Hugh M. Boe and his assignment to paint the portraits of the heroic dead members of the Verhovay, in the March 22nd issue. It also published the picture of artist Poe while working on one of the Verhovay heroes’ portraits. The interest shown by this widely read magazine in the activities of the Verhovay is most gratifying and, since Verhovayans naturally are curious to know how others think about the unique plain of the Verhovay to commemorate the heroes who gave their lives for their country, we reprint the article with the permission of the “Bulletin Index.”

(By courtesy of “The Bulletin Index.”)

ARTIST HUGH M. POE AT WORK ON ONE OF THE VERHOVAY HEROES’ PORTRAITS

“Last fall, officers and directors of the 59-year-old Verhovay Fraternal Insurance Association met to decide what they could do to honor their members who had given their lives in the war and what they could do for their next-of-kin. Some of the men in this national Hungarian fraternal society had seen the portraits of military personnel that were exhibited in the windows of the John M. Roberts and Sons Company, and suggested that similar portraits of their servicemen be painted and presented to nextof-kin of their members. The idea was presented and accepted immediately.

Pittsburgh Painter Hugh M. Poe, who does BI’s Biogravures and who had done the portraits for Roberts, was commissioned to do the life-size, head and shoulder, full color pastel portraits. His first step was to make up a questionnaire to be filled out by the next-of-kin with details of the servicemen’s coloring, his rank, branch of service and citations. Within a few days 80 questionnaires, together with photographs and snapshots of the servicemen were returned. For Artist Poe this is not merely a “copy” job. For one portrait he received a fuzzy snapshot so small he could cover it with a dime, and even with the aid of a magnifying glass the soldier’s features were not clear. But it was the only picture the boy’s parents had. Then Poe learned that the soldier has a young brother who looked very much like him, so he borrowed a large picture of the brother, filled in the details on the soldier’s portrait.

Portraitist Poe has had to study up on the military, too. Few of the photographs he paints from show the servicemen’s insignia, and since the portraits are to include all insignia and citations, he has to know, for example, the colors of the campaign ribbons listed on the questionnaires, the proper colors for the cord on soldiers’ overseas caps and just where the various insignia are worn.

Military portrait commissions, however, are not new to Texasborn Artist Poe. When he was a student at the John Herron Art School in Indianapolis, he did a series of 79 portraits of men from nearby Culver Military Academy who were killed in World War I. And for the Roberts Company, too, aside from almost 50 portraits of military heroes for their own collection, he is doing pastel portraits of local Congressional Medal of Honor winners which the jewelry company presents to the servicemen's families.

So far his current job has kept far ahead of him. From the original 80, the number of casualties among the insurance association’s 7,000 members in service has grown to 137, and each portrait requires about 35 working hours. So none of the next-of-kin feel neglected because their painting isn’t done immediately.

Photographs are being made of all of Poe’s portraits and will be hung in the Verhovay Association’s new home office building at 420 Fourth Avenue. The organization has just recently bought this building, but until they can remodel it after the war, the headquarters will remain in the Standard Life Building.”