Carroll Twp. colonel to marshal Veterans Day parade
Brian Charlton, archivist at Donora Historical Society, and visitor Nancy Jurik Ferber examine the society’s World War II collection.
The World War II collection at Donora Historical Society includes this photo of Ernest Jobes, the first person from the borough to be killed in the war.
U.S. Air Force Col. John F. Gonzales
Donora once had a black American Legion post named after William Ernest Owens, a man who remains a mystery at the local historical society.
Donora Historical Society doesn’t have a shred of information on Owens in its World War II collection, parts of which will be on display when the borough hosts the Washington County Veterans Day parade Saturday.
Society archivist Brian Charlton said he would love to have something to honor Owens in the group’s vast collection of war memorabilia in a town whose former U.S. Steel mill built supplies that helped to win both world wars.
Among the items that will be on display Saturday is a trunk carried by Dr. Edward Roth when he served in World War II, and it’s filled with socks, underwear, religious material and other items carried in the war by Edward Huhra, who was a mechanic in a bomber squadron.
“He was a great saver,” Charlton said. “We have a lot of his personal photographs.”
Meanwhile, former Carroll Township resident John F. Gonzales, a U.S. Air Force colonel, will serve as parade marshal during the 3 p.m. march that will follow McKean Avenue from Third to Eighth streets.
Gonzales leads a team responsible for interagency planning and strategies in Iran, Iraq and Syria. He was commissioned at the Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. He and his wife, Nicole, have five children.
Units are instructed to line up at 2 p.m. at Third Street and Meldon Avenue. Observances will start at 11 a.m. at the A.P. Delsandro Memorial at Sixth Street and Meldon Avenue. The society also will have a presentation on local veterans at 1:30 p.m. at its Donora Smog Museum, McKean Avenue and Sixth Street.