Stories Behind the Star: Stories of Monessen’s sons lost in WWII are now being told

By JOHN TURANIN

For the MVI

They lost their lives far from their Mon Valley homes.

At Bataan, Guadalcanal and Normandy.

In the air over Europe. 

In the trenches of France, Italy and Germany. 

On the islands of Guam and Saipan.  

In Japanese POW camps.  

More than 80 sons of Monessen gave their lives on the world’s battlefields during Word War II.  Many were from first-generation immigrant families from Europe whose parents paid the ultimate price for acceptance as Americans — the lives of their sons.  

Thanks to an international effort by the nonprofit Stories Behind the Stars, their memories will soon live on. Volunteers are writing memorial stories for all 421,000 U.S. service members who were killed in Word War II. 

So far, more than 38,000 stories have been written, including for all who died at Pearl Harbor, at Normandy on D-Day and for those Word War II fallen buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

A grandson of Monessen, John Turanin, is committed to the effort. John volunteers with Stories Behind The Stars, researching and writing memorial stories about his father’s Word War II fallen peers from Monessen. 

His father, John Sr., was raised in a family of 10 in Monessen and served with the U.S. Army Air Force in Word War II. John’s grandparents, Janos Turjanin and Zsofia Kenesz, immigrated to Monessen in the 1910s from the Carpathian region of Europe now located within western Ukraine. 

John explains, “These Monessen boys walked the same streets as my Dad. They went to the same schools, shops, and churches. Their fathers walked each day to the Monessen mills to do grueling, life-threatening work. Their mothers earnestly attended their gardens to feed their children and protect them from starvation and disease. These were strong and awesome people.”

After the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, the citizens of Monessen mobilized. Sons entered the U.S. armed forces, not knowing if they would ever return. 

As the war pressed on, their sons gave their lives in places far from Monessen. Some were eventually returned to Mon Valley cemeteries, but many were buried near their battlefield or lost at sea. 

John is telling their stories.  

“One Monessen boy suffered as a POW of the Japanese in the Philippines for over two years. He then survived attacks by Allied bombers and the sinking of two Japanese ‘hellships’ on which he was a passenger, only to die two weeks after arriving in Japan,” John recalls. “Another was a ball-turret gunner in a B-17 bomber shot from the sky over Germany. One other lost his life when he was accidentally shot by another U.S. soldier while on guard duty in Guam.”

John has written memorial stories for more than 150 fallen U.S. service members. These stories can be read online and at the gravesites on visitors’ smartphones.  

In the coming months, the Mon Valley Independent will share some of John’s stories of Monessen’s Word War II fallen. He invites their family members to connect with him and include their memories. 

“Families from Monessen should be exceedingly proud,” John said. “Not only did their sons step into fierce combat, they knew that their sons’ lives may be sacrificed at the altar of democracy. This unspoken price of citizenship was one that many that America’s migrant families stepped up to pay.”

Forty Monessen Word War II fallen have already been memorialized in stories John has written. After Monessen, he hopes to write stories of Word War II fallen from his mother’s hometown of Monongahela.  

The names of Monessen Word War II fallen are inscribed on the Monessen Word War II Memorial in Monessen City Park (Monessen Veterans Memorial, a War Memorial, hmdb.org). If you are a family member or friend of a Monessen World War II fallen and wish to contribute Information or photos, please contact John Turanin at jjturanin@gmail.com.  

More than 31,000 Pennsylvanians died in service to their country in Word War II. Stories Behind The Stars welcomes anyone who is interested in joining the international collaboration to write their memorial stories. More can be learned at www.storiesbehindthestars.org.