Eighty-two men from the Pennsylvania mill town of Monessen never returned alive from WWII. They were killed in battle, shot down in aircraft, lost on the high seas, or succumbed to accidents and illnesses. They lost their lives in Europe, North Africa, on Pacific islands, at sea, and stateside. Some were brought home and buried with honors in the city's cemeteries. Some remained overseas, interred in American military cemeteries. Others were never recovered, lost at sea. More than 90% of the lives lost were first generation Americans, the sons of immigrants of the early 1900's. In 1941 the bustling industrial city of Monessen was only 43 years old when the United States entered World War II. Located 20 miles south of Pittsburgh, Monessen had grown to a population of 20,000 by the start of the war. Immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe as well as from other states had been arriving in Monessen since the 1900's in search of the economic opportunities offered by the city's steel and tin mills. While surviving the Great Depression they experienced hardscrabble lives... lives that still offered more hope in Monessen than in the places they left behind.
When the war began, Monessen families sent their sons to serve in the armed forces of America. More than 3,500 Monessen citizens would serve between 1941-1945 ... over 15% of the city's population. Some were soon stationed in far off places around the globe. Some traveled to the homelands of their parents to oppose the aggressors. Others did their jobs while stationed in the US.
Tin Men Steel Soldiers recounts the personal story of each of the city's 82 lives lost in service to their country. Every story tells of their family heritage and of their life in Monessen, as well as the circumstances surrounding their loss during WWII. Their stories are each told separately in the chronological order of their loss within the historical context of the war as it progressed.
It is said that we die twice, once when we take our last breath, and the second time, when our name is last spoken. By telling the stories of these men, their names may continue to be spoken by future generations, giving life to their spirits and their legacies.
Author John Turanin is a grandson of immigrants who arrived in Monessen in the early 1900's. For each of the 82 Monessen WWII "Fallen", he has researched their life and written their story, now published in this volume.
