Bridgeville's Connection to the USS Juneau October 5, 2017

Copyright © 2017                                                        John F. Oyler

October 5, 2017

Pittsburgh's Connection to the USS Juneau

This week we have a guest columnist – my brother Joe – reporting on a significant event that I was unable to attend. In his words:

 On May 16, 2017, students at Chartiers Valley High School under the guidance of Robert[Bob] Rodrigues, a history teacher at the school, honored 32 men from the school district who had perished while serving in the military during World War 2. In an outdoor ceremony held behind the school a plaque bearing each man's name was added to an existing monument. This was the fourth such project carried out by Bob and his students; Korean War, Vietnam War, and another group of WW2 casualties having been similarly honored in previous years. Since I provided support on three of these projects, Bob included me in a new and similar project independent of those carried out by his students.

This project was being led by one of Bob's former students, Father Vincent Kolo, an acquaintance of our daughter Becky who  had graduated with him from CVHS in 1986. After high school he became a Roman Catholic priest and is currently a chaplain at Passavant Hosptal. In 2011 The Robert Rodrigues Fund was  established to honor Bob who had been a dedicated teacher at CVHS for many years. In the spring of 2017 he retired after 43 years in the classroom. Each year the Fund awards a $1000 scholarship to a deserving CVHS graduate. Father Kolo serves on the board of directors of the fund and because of this has been reconnected with Bob. In recent years Father Kolo, who is a history buff like many of us, corresponded with Kelly Sullivan who resides in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and is the granddaughter of Albert Leo Sullivan. Albert is one of the five famous Sullivan brothers who perished when the USS Juneau was sunk at Guadacanal on November 13, 1942, by a torpedo fired from a Japanese submarine. Now having befriended Kelly Sullivan, Father Kolo asked her to come to the Pittsburgh area and give a talk on the Sullivan family, especially the impact of the disaster on her family. When she agreed to come, Father Kolo and others began working hard to locate and interview descendants of  the 33 Pittsburgh area residents who also perished on the Juneau. Since Bridgeville's Alexander Asti lost his life in the incident I was asked to publicize the event in the Bridgeville area.

On September 16^th at Peters Place, Kelly was the guest speaker in an event titled “Pittsburgh's Connection to the USS Juneau  and the Five Sullivan Brothers”. A program including biographies of the five Sullivan brothers and the 33 men from the Pittsburgh area was given to each attendee. Prior to Kelly's talk Bob Rodrigues gave a brief talk on American history leading up to WW2, and Father Kolo discussed events in the South Pacific leading up to Guadacanal. After Kelly spoke, a Navy Honor Guard had a memorial service honoring the men who perished. Kelly, a third grade teacher in Cedar Falls, Iowa, is heavily involved with the USS Sullivans destroyer, now a museum in Buffalo, New York, the USS Sullivans guided missile destroyer, which she “launched” in 1995 and is now on active duty, and the Iowa Veteran's Museum named for the Sullivan brothers. She had a heartwarming and informative talk which at times made the attendees chuckle and at times brought a tear to their eyes. She discussed the closeness of the brothers which led to their serving on the same ship, the family's response to the tragedy, and her heavy involvement with the US Navy. Each year she shares the story of the Juneau and her connection to the US Navy with her students. Kelly noted how interested the children are in this history and had some cute anecdotes involving them. After the Sullivan brothers  perished, their parents traveled around the country helping to sell War Bonds to support our country's efforts. Other than our government taking care of  their expenses there was nothing in it for them financially. The Sullivan family dealt with their huge loss in a manner  better than anyone of us might imagine.  After meeting and hearing Kelly Sullivan, that is still evident four generations later. 

There were 120 attendees at the event, nine of them from the Bridgeville area, including Alexander Asti's nephew, Louis Asti, and his wife Sandi.   

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This certainly sounds like an event that warranted our support. I am pleased that the Bridgeville Area Historical Society went out of its way to advertise it; we need lots more of this sort of cooperation between our sister organizations, especially when it comes to notifying interested parties about worthwhile events like this.

I also am impressed with Kelly Sullivan, Father Kolo, and Bob Rodrigues for their roles in making this event happen; we are fortunate to have people like them, committed to keeping our historical heritage alive.