This is why war is hell
A Massachusetts native educated at Providence College who practiced medicine in Elbridge. So what is the Solvay connection in the next story? The answer is Agnes Lydon Lovett, his wife, whose parents lived on Freeman Avenue in Solvay. The war experience of her husband, Lieutenant Raymond J. Lovett, was too interesting to ignore.

Syracuse Herald-American, September 12
A surgeon’s nightmare — 70 hours of continuous work under Japanese bombardment in an operating room at sea on 269 emergency cases that came to him for care all at once — was actually lived by a young Elbridge physician, Lieut. Raymond J. Lovett, 30, of the U. S. Navy, just back from a year’s duty on a destroyer in the Pacific war area.

That desperate situation arose, Lieut. Lovett revealed yesterday to the Herald-American, when sailors and officers who survived the sinking of two destroyers in the great naval battle off Tulagi last November 14, were picked up by the destroyers on which he served, at dawn after the intense night fighting.

“The courage of those kids under the circumstances was remarkable,” he declared. “All had been floating — on their lifebelts only — for 12 hours in the open sea when we picked them up over an area of five square miles. There wasn’t a raft in sight. Most of them were wounded and the injuries ranged from fractures to burns and from shrapnel wounds to depth charge concussions received in the water, as well as bad internal injuries.

“A few years ago the majority of them would have died, but we didn’t lose a one — thanks to the remarkable sulfa drugs we had aboard and our bountiful supply of blood plasma.

“Several of the boys on our destroyer leaped into the sea to rescue those fellows,” Lieut. Lovett said. “Others were picked up by crews of small boats lowered over the side. But when they started coming aboard, they came fast.

“After the battle between Tulagi and Guadalcanal that night, which would up about three days of heavy fighting, our ship was assigned to remain at the scene to pick up the survivors at dawn. Before dawn broke, however, our destroyer sank four Jap transports. Then we started picking up our men from the battle area, while Jap Zeros strafed us with 20 millimeter cannon.”

Dr. Lovett, who was commissioned in May, 1942, and went to sea in the Atlantic a month later, was detached from service in the Aleutians and flew back to Seattle. He returned to Syracuse by train, arriving home Tuesday.

Dr. Lovett said:

“We were off the Solomons during the campaign in those islands and later figured in the fighting at Russell’s Island. Our destroyer also shelled Munda. The only time we went ashore in a civilized port came when we stopped at Sydney, Australia, for a few days.

“From Australia we went to the Aleutians and we were there when Attu was taken from the Japanese, while those 10,000 Japs on Kiska were sneaking out.”

Dr. Lovett’s theory on the Japanese evacuation of Kiska is that submarines making many trips were used to get the enemy troops off when the enemy realized it “had bitten off more than it could chew.”

Dr. Lovett, a native of Massachusetts, came to Syracuse as a medical student at the College of Medicine after completing his studies at Providence College. He remained here to practice at Elbridge for three and a half years before entering the Navy.

He has two children, Alice, 3, and Raymond Lovett Jr., 15 months old, who was born while the physician was on Atlantic service.

Mrs. Lovett has been making her home with the children at the home of her parents, Mr. and Mrs. John Lydon, 113 Freeman Avenue, Solvay, where Lieut. Lovett is staying temporarily before taking up new duties at Sampson Naval Training Station.

Syracuse Herald-Journal, February 12
Lifelong pals enlist together
Four lifelong buddies of Solvay were inducted into the Army on Thursday and will leave together Tuesday to begin training. Another was inducted into the Navy. All had their own basketball team and played together on football teams and were in other sports together.

They included James E. Foley, 20, son of Mr. and Mrs. John Foley of 2109 Milton Avenue; Albert R. Martinez Jr., 20, son of Mr. and Mrs. Albert R. Martinez of 502 Second Street; Michael Ponzo, 19, son of Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Ponzo of 332 First Street, and Louis Dannibale, 19, son of Joseph Dannibale of 103 Cogswell Avenue. Louis Femano, son of Mrs. Clementine Femano of 501 Abell Avenue, was inducted into the Navy.

Dannibale’s brother, Anthony, was in the Marines and was killed in action on Guadalcanal last autumn. Foley was at one time assistant manager of the Niagara University football team. Ponzo for two years was manager of the Solvay High School track team, and Martinez was star halfback of the Solvay Grill football team.

Syracuse Herald-Journal, March 1
Reunited at a skating rink
Army life doesn’t change the habits of a lifetime and two soldiers and a Marine, long chums in Syracuse, and each unaware that the others were home on a furlough, fell back into their old order of life Saturday night. They had been roller skating enthusiasts, and oddly enough each was thinking of the others as he walked to the Healy skating rink in South Salina Street.

One was Dominic D’Alfonso (center, below), 22, convalescing survivor of Guadalcanal. The second, Pfc. Nick Charles (right) , an instructor in the Army Air Corps, is home on furlough from Seymour Johnson Field, North Carolina. The third Corp. Keneston Landers (left) of the Air Force, was having his last night at home before leaving at 4 a.m. yesterday for his base at Bowman Field, Kentucky.

Visiting his parents, Mr. and Mrs. William Landers of 103 Union Avenue, Landers was first to reach the scene of the skating rink. All at once he looked up and saw Charles, whom he knew was in service. Charles is visiting his parents at 110 Power Street, Solvay. The two were shaking hands and talking about the good old days when D’Alfonso hove into view.

Forgotten was the desire for skating. The boys had other things on their minds. They wanted to go someplace and talk. All had been Herald carrier boys of the past and it was to the Herald-Journal they came for a group photograph and a visit.

D’Alfonso had stories for them. He had been home nearly a week, but he has not been talking much. He has been in the Marines 13 months, being shipped overseas three months after enlistment, his basic training having been at Parris Island. He volunteered for raiding battalion duty, received special training and was a member of the first Marine party who landed on Guadalcanal.

The Marine is visiting his parents at 404 Second Street, Solvay, is on leave until March 10 from the United States Navy Hospital at Oakland, California.

Syracuse Herald-American, March 28
Selectees include two pair of brothers
Two pairs of brothers were among 79 selectees of Solvay Selective Service Board 471 who left for military service yesterday. Among the large contingent were men from the towns of Geddes, Cicero, Clay and Lysander.

James Matthew Sullivan, 20, and John Sullivan, 18, graduates and athletes of Solvay High School, were two of the brothers who left. Their home is at 303 Center Street, Solvay. They are sons of Mr. and Mrs. Neal Sullivan.

The other pair of brothers are twins, Paul Byrns and Carl Byrns, sons of Mr. and Mrs. Carl Byrns of Caroline Avenue, Solvay. Their father is a veteran of the World War.

Syracuse Herald-Journal, April 14
Guadalcanal veteran comes home
There’s a stream of visitors today at the home of Mr. and Mrs. John Garofalo, 611 State Fair Boulevard.

For Pfc. Dominic Joseph Garofalo, 21, Marine son of Mr. and Mrs. Garofalo, has returned home, and all his relatives and friends are stopping by to wish him well.

After 14 months in the Marines, Private Garofalo has been given an honorable discharge because of shell shock suffered while at Guadalcanal. He went in with the Marines when they landed at Guadalcanal, was taken out of there November 21, was on the transport Coolidge when it hit a mine and sank, and finally reached a U. S. Navy Hospital at Mare Island, California.

The Marine private was four months at the hospital before he was released. He came home yesterday for the first time since his enlistment, February 5, 1942.

Private Garofalo was a machine gunner and saw action in nearly every drive from the day the Marines landed until he was removed.

With a prayer book in one hand and a machine gun in the other, he went about the business of getting rid of as many Japs as he could.

“I kept my medal in my hand all the while I worked my machine gun,” he related, “and I guess it did me some good. Once some shrapnel took the heel off my shoe, and another time a bullet whipped through the sleeve of my tunic and killed my buddy.”

Private Garofalo went through 135 air raids and got to know pretty well “Whistling Pete” and “Washing Machine Charlie,” two Jap planes that made daily visits.

He got used to the snakes, lizards and crocodiles.

When the Coolidge sank, he swam around in oil and water for several minutes until he was picked up by a lifeboat.

The Americans never lost their sense of humor, he said. They called the Jap camp near the Lungo River “Little Tokyo,” and in the middle of battle, he heard the remark, “Well, at least we’re getting paid for this.”

A Japanese officer who was captured told him that the Japs called the Marines “the suicide squad.” According to Private Garofalo, the Japs are good at the bayonet, their snipers are “pretty straight,” but they can’t stand noise.

“They’re good fighters,” he said, “but they don’t want to die any more than you and I. And our fellows were better. When you see a buddy fall down, your mind goes blank and you want to fight until you drop yourself.”

The Marine is a former Solvay High School student and laborer for the D. L. & W. He has two brothers in service, Pfc. James Garofalo of the Marines, doing guard duty in Washington, and Seaman Second Class Thomas Garofalo, stationed at Sampson.

Syracuse Herald-Journal, April 19
Mail couldn't keep up with him
Pfc. Joseph Chesneski, U. S. Marine Corps, didn’t receive any news from his family from the time he left for war in January, 1942, until yesterday when he returned to his home at 514 Second Street, Solvay.

His mail never caught up to him, so it was not Joe’s fault that he found something had been added to the household when he walked into the living room and was greeted by Cynthia Ann Chesneski, 11 months, daughter of his brother, Stanley, a member of the Army Air Forces.

Joe Chesneski passed two months on Guadalcanal, saw plenty of action, had a few narrow escapes, finally came down with malaria and has been in hospitals in New Zealand and San Francisco for some time. He is home to be discharged from the Marines, due to his physical condition, though he looks as fit as in the days he played semi-pro football with the Solvay Tigers and the Auburn Imps.

Looks are sometimes deceitful; it takes a long time to recover from two attacks of malaria and what Chesneski went through.

He fought with the infantry over in the Pacific area, although he was with a signal detachment of the Headquarters company. “We didn’t have time for signals,” he said this morning. He told about the battle in which 12 Japanese tanks were knocked out of action. “The weirdest thing about that was where the tanks came from. No ships had been landed on the island that could have brought them. They just appeared out of nowhere, but they didn’t last long.”

He told of being under artillery fire awaiting orders atop a hill, and of having one buddy killed near him, his legs shot off. He told of an air attack by the Japs that caught him and his company in an open field. They ran for nearby woods.

“Where I started to enter the cover I saw a bull standing. When you’re caught between a squadron of Jap planes and a bull, you take your chances with the bull. I just ran at him and scared him so he ran out of the woods, right where I had come from. One of the fellows told me a bomb landed near the bull and it was killed. I don’t know. If it did, I’m sorry, but I’m afraid I’d do it again under the same circumstances.”

There were four boys from Solvay, all friends of long standing, in Joe’s company at Guadalcanal, one of whom, Dominic d’Alfonso, was wounded in action and returned home some time ago. The other two were Sam Plants and Carbino Santaferra. They’re in Australia.

Three stars are in the Chesneski service flag which adorns a front window of their home. Pfc. Stanley Chesneski, of the Air Forces, is stationed in Walla Walla, Washington, where he helps “keep ‘em flying” for the pilots. Private Peter Chesneski is in Hawaii, with an ordnance outfit. Stanley’s wife and baby are living at the Solvay address, where Joe will now make his home again, having heroically and faithfully served his country.

Joseph Chesneski, nicknamed “L’il Horse,” died in 1994; he was 79. He retired in 1971 as a driver and mechanic with the village of Solvay Department of Public Works.

Syracuse Herald-Journal, June 25
From Solvay to "somewhere in England"
They look as if they were hard at work in offices right here in Syracuse, these two, but actually they are Army nurses on duty in general hospitals somewhere in England.

Wearing the pair of silver wings is Second Lieutenant Betty L. Briggs of 917 Second Street, Solvay. Member of the Army Nurse Corps for eight months, Miss Briggs “joined up,” she says, “for the world of experience I knew I would get and for the training that would come with it. There are opportunities for a young nurse in the Army Nurse Corps that no civilian hospital offers.”

Second Lieutenant Lorena M. Goodell of Kirkville says she joined the corps “because I felt I was needed and because I had no home ties.” Miss Goodell is assistant chief nurse at her hospital in England.

“We’re learning a lot and we’re having a good time along with it,” she says. “When I joined there was a great need for Army nurses, and although many people don’t realize it, there is still is great need.”

The story of these two young Central New York officers comes from the headquarters of the European theater of operations, U. S. Army. But Miss Briggs would give no information, the dispatch says, on how she “won” her wings, other than to say “he’s a swell guy and I met him while he was in the hospital.”

She says she is completely sold on her Army job. “We get to work with the finest doctors in the profession, for one thing. We learn the latest treatments and methods and get the opportunity to handle types of cases that ordinarily we would never get. Of course, it isn’t all work,” she added, glancing down at the silver wings. “There are lots of creational facilities in the camp, and near the camp, and then we have dances at the post with plenty of Army men as partners.”

Before entering the Nurse Corps, Miss Briggs, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Louis Briggs, worked at Syracuse Memorial Hospital. She is now in the eye, ear, nose and throat clinic of the Army hospital.

Miss Goodell has been in the corps for six months and is doing administrative work. She has been a nurse for 10 years and before joining the Army she, too, was at Syracuse Memorial Hospital. She says too few young nurses “seem to appreciate that the experience they would get in the Army Nurse Corps is entirely different from what they have in a civilian hospital. The types of cases are different, the methods of treatment are new, and just about everything is different. I think it is a grand training for a young nurse.”

On the outside, Miss Goodell says, “we get to visit many English homes and meet and get to know the English people. The experience is valuable in a broadening sense as well as a professional sense.”

Syracuse Herald-Journal, October 3
Brostek scores in Pacific battle
Henry A. Brostek, former Solvay High School athlete, now a first lieutenant in Marine aviation, was one of the heroes of a recent aviation battle against the Japs in Munda, being credited with a direct hit on an anti-aircraft battery on the island.

Brostek is credited with diving through heavy anti aircraft fire to destroy the battery with a 1,000-pound bomb.

It was his first raid and latest information is that he has participated in four more, including the attack on Kolombangara.

Brostek, who played tackle for Catholic University after graduating from Solvay High School, entered the Navy in December, 1941, a few days after Pearl Harbor. He won his wings a year later and was selected for the Marine Aviation Corps.

At Solvay he was a four-letter winner in athletics, playing football, basketball, hockey and baseball. He was one of the outstanding stars of his Catholic University football teams and was a member of the team that battled Arizona State to a scoreless tie in the Sun Bowl in 1939.
— From a column by sports editor Lawrence J. Skiddy

Syracuse Herald-Journal, February 3
Flash completes basic training
Remember "Flash"? Well, several months after his owners enlisted their German Shepherd into the Army, the dog completed basic training.

“Flash” has gone on active duty, “dispatched to his permanent assignment, under sealed orders,” the War Department writes. He’s a sentry.

“Flash” was one of the first dogs donated to the Army from Onondaga County. The handsome big police dog was sent to the War Dog Reception and Training Center, Quartermaster Depot, Front Royal, Virginia, on September 10 last, by Mr. and Mrs. Paul F. Demerski, 205 Windemere Road, Solvay, his owners. Now the Demerskis have learned of his “graduation.”

“We are happy to acknowledge your letter pertaining to the above mentioned animal,” said the letter signed by Col. T. B. Apgar, commanding officer of the training center. “As you can readily imagine, the present state of emergency prohibits highly specialized reports on any of these splendid animals to you generous and patriotic owners who are making possible ‘Dogs for Defense.’

“It is our pleasure to report, however, that Flash’s schooling for sentry duty has been completed and your dog has been dispatched to his permanent assignment, under sealer orders. You will, of course, understand why the interests of military secrecy will be best served if further information is withheld from his point forward.”

The donated dogs — a dozen went forth this last week from Syracuse homes — are put through as thorough a course of training at these centers as are the raw recruits sent forward by the draft boards at Army camps. Not all make the grade, Mr. and Mrs. Demersky have been informed. They know of a number of animals which have been sent back as “untrainable.”

“This makes us all the more proud of Flash,” said Mrs. Demerski, when the letter came advising of their dog’s activation for duty. Flash is two years old.

Syracuse Herald-Journal, March 29, 1943
Solvay wins Little Falls tournament
Unbeaten in 21 games, Solvay High School’s champions of the Little Falls invitation basketball tournament are back home today, tired but happy, as fellow students and townspeople hailed Coach Al Talmadge and his title-winners who brought state athletic prestige to the village.

Among the returning champions acclaimed by classmates was Felix Mozo, 18-year-old forward, who was crowned the outstanding player of the tournament, and Bob Himpler, guard, who also placed on the tournament All-Star team.

Six of the nine players Coach Talmadge took to Little Falls played their last game for Solvay when they conquered Proctor High School of Utica Friday night, and three of them expect to go into the armed services soon.

Talmadge, who teaches chemistry and physics, along with coaching, was back in the classroom today, and his basketball plans for next season will have to be made without any of his first five players.

Mozo and Henry Zamojski are seniors, Captain Joe Szczech, Himpler and Primo Ponti are taking post-graduate work. Himpler and Ponti expect to be called into the Army next month and the Solvay captain plans to enroll as a cadet in a Naval program.

Don Glisson, another member of the squad, will be graduated in June, leaving only Jim Farrell, Harold Haight and James Ryan, juniors, as a nucleus for next season’s defense of the Onondaga County championship.