Verhovayak Lapja, 1945 (28. évfolyam, 1-52. szám)
1945 / Verhovay Journal
October 31, 1945 Verhovay Journal Page 7 Hero's Portrait Presented in Springdale, Pa. MEMORY OF PFC. FRANK P. TOASO HONORED AT IMPRESSIVE MEMORIAL CELEBRATION A deeply moving memorial celebration was held in honor oi Pfc. Frank P. Toaso, in Springdale, Pa., on October 20, Saturday evening. Scene of the event was the Verhovay Home at 220 Colfax Street, the usual meeting place of Branch 296, which will celebrate its 30th anniversary next year. The memorial celebration was attended by the rank and file of the Springdale American Hungarian colony but, in addition, many guests came from Creighton, Braeckenridge, Logansferry, New Kensington, Cheswick and other towns. Mr. Stephen Üveges, president of Branch 296, delivered the welcoming address and then requested Mr. Louis Cincel, District Manager to act as Master of Ceremonies. The audience sang “God Bless America” and then prayer was offered by the Rev. Ft. Eugene Horvath of Leechburg, Pa. Mrs. Emma Phillips Lauranchok, Deputy Auditor, deeply moved the audience as she spoke in behalf of the second generation membership. She was followed by Supreme Treasurer John Szalanczy who urged the audience to support the American Hungarian Relief movement. Mr. J. A. Clark, superintendent of the local High School, was the next speaker. The late Frank Toaso was a student in that school and his personal acquaintance with the hero lent a personal touch to his moving address. He commended the immigrant Hungarians in whose children he learned to appreciate valuable American citizens of the future. John Speaky spoke in behalf of the local post of the VFW, and then Frank Mitchell, superintendent of the Harmarville school delivered an unusually fine and appropriate address. Elmer Charles, manager of Branch 296, expressed the deep sympathy of the membership of the branch to Mrs. Toaso and the members of her family. Supreme Secretary Coloman Revesz delivered the presentationaddress. He told the story of how Hungarian immigrants served the cause of Liberty ever since the Independence War which produced the type of the heroic American citizen of Hungarian origin in Brig. Col. Michael DeKovats. He fought for the independence of America and gave his life for victory. And the generations of immigrants following in his footsteps carried on the tradition set by this great hero of our adopted land. Frank P. Toaso will be honored by Americans of Hungarian origin as one of the great men who defended their country loyally, even unto death. His untimely death meant a great loss to his widowed mother, Mrs. Emma Tcaso, who, having lost her husband many years ago, reared her children in the love of the country which has become her homeland. Mr. Revesz expressed his deepest sympathy, in behalf of the membership of the Verhovay, to Mrs. Toaso, whose beloved son was killed in action in Germany, on September 18, 1944, at the age of 20. Deeply moved, he presented to her the portrait of Pfc. Frank Toaso which was unveiled while military taps were rendered in tribute of the late hero. The Rev. Father Eugene Horvath, pastor of the Toaso family, expressed the sincere gratitude of the family for the portrait and the tribute paid to the heroic dead Verhovayan to the members and officers of Branch £96, the Supreme Officers, and the membership of the Association. William Blizman, manager of the Juvenile Order, Branch 296, also expressed his appreciation for the presence of the Supreme Officers. Then he spoke of the past, present and future of Springdale’s Branch 296, which was founded in 1916 with 21 members of whom only two live in Springdale at the present time. Today this branch has more than 300 adult and more than 200 juvenile members, but the branch is still progressing. In behalf of the officers and members of this growing branch, he promised to work for the future growth and advancement of this branch. Louis Cincel, District Manager, who did a very fine job as Master of Ceremonies, delivered the closing address which was followed by the singing of the National Anthem. Refreshments were served to the guests by the branch. Credit is due for the excellent arrangements to branch-president Steven Üveges; Elmer Charles, Senior Branch-manager; Louis Benjamin, treasurer; William Biizman, Junior branch-manager, and to the Ladies’ Club which extended its hospitality to the many guests who attended this memorial celebration and paid tribute to Pfc. Frank Toaso and his mother whose sorrow is shared by all Verhovayans. THE VERHOVAY EPIC (Continued from Page 5) Rinkacs and his wife, nee Mary Lorince, who came to America from Bodrogmczo, Zemplen County, Hungary. He was awarded the Silver Star Medal for gallantry in action on January 23, 1945. The citation discloses the epic story of this action as follows. “By direction of the President and under the provisions of Army Regulations, Joseph J. Rinkacs, Sergeant, 13.059,261, Corps of Engineers, Company A, 290th Engineer Combat Battalion, U. S. Army, is awarded the Silver Star Medal for gallantry in action on January 23, 1945, in France. Sergeant Rinkacs, as squad leader of the third platoon, Company A, 290th Engineer Combat Battalion serving in front line positions as Infantry, acted with gallantry and undaunted courage in action against the enemy. On 23 January 1945 his company was engaged in a general offensive action against strongly held stabilized enemy defensive position. When an assault platoon of his company was pinned down and sustaining heavy casualties in an exposed position, Sergeant Rinkacs, in full view of the enemy, moved a caliber .30 heavy machine gun to a position in his area to furnish fire support to the assault platoon. Using the machine gun without cradle or tripod, he furnished overhead fire support to the platoon while holding the weapon in his arms. His position was subjected to observed fire from enemy automatic weapons, mortars, and artillery. It was the fire from the machine gun which Sergeant Rinkacs manned, which was instrumental in keeping the enemy fire down so that the platoon leader of the assault platoon could move the remainder of his platoon to a covered position and be evacuated with the fewest possible casualties.” Sergeant Rinkacs, still stationed in Germany, where he received the medal from Maj. Gen. F. W. MiRmrn, was inducted in May, 1942 and went overseas last December. He is a Duquesne High School graduate and former employe of Duquesne Works, Carnegie Illinois Steel Corp. Our pride over Joe Rinkacs’s accomplishments is surpassed only by our happiness that he escaped safely from this extremely dangerous encounter with the enemy. MEDIC’ AWARDED BRONZ STAR! Andrew I. Beres, pharmacist’s mate 1st Class, son of Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Beres, 345 Howard Ave., Bridgeport, Conn., a member of Branch 68, serving on Okinawa with the First Battalion of the Eight Marine Corps, has been awarded the Bronze Star. “As a medical corpsman with a rifle company under intense enemy mortar fire” — the citation states — “he voluntarely left his position of comparative safety and exposed himself again and again to give first aid to several wounded Marines, helping them into covered areas which contributed greatly to saving the lives of these men.” An employe of the General Electric Company before entering the service in October, 1942, he has been overseas 16 months. He has three brothers in the service, Pfc. Frank, with the Third Army, Germany, Pfc. William, with the Fifth Army, Italy and Seaman 1st Class Ernest, who serves aboard a YTB. — The story of Andrew Beres and the pictures of the four brothers appeared in the Bridgeport Sunday Post, on Sept. 30, 1945.. THIRD ARMY EPIC . . . Mrs. Kelemen, proud mother of Louis, a member of Branch 54, Cleveland, O., sent us a mimeographed letter containing messages of several of his comrades. PFC. LOUIS KELEMEN It seems, the Third Army developed the idea of pooling their letters and sending them to the home-folks so that they may get a full picture of their existence. The letter, in this instance, was written by the inducted employees of the Cleveland Cap Screw Co., in reply to a similar letter received from “gang” at home. Louis Kelemen’s letter occupies half a sheet of this letter, but it certainly is worth the space for there Louis tells in brief, dramatic sentences the entire epic story of the famous Third Army as fell as his part in its advences. J Thus runs the letter: “I have been over here since January. I came over on the Queen Mary. It’s quite a ship, but I wish it would have been a peace-time cruise. We landed in Scotland and got on the boat at Lc Havre. Le Havre really showed what bombing can do to a city. The people were begging for anything we could give them. The children went without shoes because they didn’t have any. It was so cold that we almost froze the first couple of days. We landed in Metz and were given our rifles and we joined up with the 76th Division. On February 6th we went into combat. We spearheaded across the Saar River into Germany from Luxemburg leading the Third Army in its invasion of Germany. After we crossed the river which was under intense enemy fire all the time, I stepped on a trip wire and set off a mine which set off self ammunition dump. I suffered concussion and shock. If I wouldn’t have hit the ground and kept my head down I would have had it knocked off by the falling trees. I was taken back to a hospital and stayed there for twelve weeks, then I rejoined my outfit. For that I received the Purple Heart. I got back to the outfit just in time to cross the Rhine. The Rhine is about twice the size of the Ohio River. After we crossed we rode for about 10 miles. It was raining all the time. We got off the trucks in a wooded area and slept in fox-holes full of water that night. Our supplies hadn’t come up to us and we hadn’t eaten for about three days. I CAN JUST PICTURE THE BOYS BACK HOME IN THE PLANTS WORKING AS HARD AS I DID IF THEY HADN’T EATEN FOR TWO OR THREE DAYS! Finally our supplies came up and we started marching. We kept on marching until we could not go any further. Our feet just gave out. In two days we covered 54 miles on foot. All this time we were meeting enemy opposition. We halted for one day’s rest and then fought for two days more and then we were relieved to go back for a rest. Why Not Be Honest? (Continued from I^age 4) agree with the signature that appeared on the medical certificate. Obviously, someone else posed for the applicant who would not have passed the medical examination. NOW, TRUTHFULLY, TELL US Come, come ... tell us, when it comes to issuing membership certificates, are we really as fussy, as we are accused of being by applicants and organizers alike? Can we be anything but fussy? You see, the trouble is that no applicant is ever prosecuted because of misrepresentations in his dealing with an insurance organization. Whenever an insurance company or association contests a claim, it gets all the publicity in the world. But no one ever mentions the applicant who worms his way into membership by fraudulent action. Yet, we maintain that for every unjustly contested claim there are ten thousand applications which are signed with the tongue in the cheek ... For every unjust rejection there are ten thousand fraudulent applications. There should be a law against applicants who sell themselves as good risks under false pretenses. If check-forgery is subject to prosecution by law, forgery of applications should receive the same treatment. It is about time that the public accepts some ethical standard, too, in its life-insurance dealings. Life-insurance applications are a legal no-man’s land. Consequently, life-insurance organizations can’t do anything but be alert, circumspect, critical. Even then, it is unavoidable that some prefectly good risks be unjustly rejected and that some absolutely bad risks still gain admittance to membership. But such cases are the exception with a conservative organization. A high rate of rejection usually means careful selection of risks, while an unusually low rejection-rate is the last resort of business-hungry organizations. As a fraternal insurance organization, we put our cards down on the table. Nothing is hidden. No ambiguous phrases are contained in our membership certificates. No small-letter clauses are hiding the provisions from the tired eyes of the new members. How about the applicants? Do they show their cards? Are they sincere, honest and fair? Do all of them give us a square deal? Or do some of them hide the facts now, only to holler to the high heaven later that they have been cheated by the “insurance racket”? This, too, is a matter of social responsibility and even more so that of simple honesty ... Why not be honest? After this rest we went back into action and were fighting until the war ended. After the Armistice was signed we were guarding displaced persons. They are ALL THOSE PEOPLE WHO WERE USED AS SLAVE LABOR IN GERMANY. IT WAS SOMETHING TERRIBLE TO SEE. They were all so skinny they looked like they hadn’t had' a I square meal for years. We were guarding German prisoners of war but now we are guarding a military hospital where there are 205 SS troops ...” It is a pleasure to introduce Pfc. Louis Kelemen to our readers. His letter depicts the type of man which was needed in the Third Army for the attainment of its glorious achievements. We hope that he may; soon return and make true the closing sentence of his letter: “I am looking forward to seeing you all again in the future.”
