ROCHESTER, N.Y. — On the eve of Veterans Day, the City of Rochester just corrected an 80-year oversight. Dozens of names were missing on the official World War II memorial at the Community War Memorial.
News10NBC Chief Investigative Reporter Berkeley Brean exposed the problem on Memorial Day and he witnessed the solution for Veteran’s Day at the Blue Cross Arena downtown.
See the full list of new names below
The mayor unveiled a plaque with the names of the World War II soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen who were left off the original plaque erected after the war 8 decades ago.
Just prior to the unveiling, the mayor quoted Martin Luther King Jr. saying “it’s always the right time to do the right thing.”
Finding the names was the work of retired Navy man Steve Momano from Irondequoit. He started the work six years ago when he found names of men killed in the war buried at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery. He discovered the names were not on the original memorial plaque. So Momano went to work, confirmed 81 names and got the city and county to make a new plaque.
“Pride. I didn’t think it would ever happen,” Momano said looking at the names on the plaque. “I spent a lot of time on it but I wasn’t sure where it was going.”
Berkeley Brean, News10NBC: “Why is it important that the public see this?”
Steve Momano, U.S. Navy (ret.): “Because these people sacrificed for our freedom. They didn’t want to go to war. They were drafted. Some were volunteers but plenty were in the service when the war started. None of them wanted to fight. But they all had to go. They knew this was a fight that had to happen.”
Berkeley Brean: “Do you think there are other names out there?”
Steve Momano: “Hard to say. It’s possible, yeah.”
42,000 people from Monroe County served in World War II. More than 1,300 were killed. And now 81 of those names are in the memorial.
“Steve did a lot of work putting together this list and verifying to make sure these names are accurate,” said Nick Stefanovic, director of Veterans Services for Monroe County.
Steve Momano said one of the worst things in life is to be forgotten. And he hopes now these Americans won’t be forgotten.
Here are the names of the soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen added to the list:
The post ‘These people sacrificed for our freedom’: 81 missing WWII veterans’ names added to Rochester memorial after 80 years appeared first on WHEC.com.
