Former Bradford resident Patricia Stromberg honored local
servicemen who died on the beaches of Normandy, France, during
World War II and remain buried there.

“It was a gorgeous place,” Stromberg, who now lives in Lemoyne,
said. “We went to Omaha Beach, the main beach where American troops
arrived. Today it is a four-mile stretch of beautiful beach. It’s
sunny, quiet and windy.”

According to Stromberg, today the beach remains a placid
reminder of the catastrophic event that took place years ago.

“It is difficult to believe that something so awful happened
there,” said Stromberg. “Something awful but necessary.”

Stromberg also described seeing cement bunkers at the top of a
hill where Allied Forces were ordered to construct cannons.

“There are still huge craters in the ground where the American
Air Force opened fire.”

“It was a very profound experience,” Stromberg said. “A lot of
people lost there lives out there.”

While visiting the American military cemetery, Stromberg and her
husband, Dennis, visited the gravesites of nine servicemen from
this area who are buried there. The names include: Pvt. Lawrence
Cabucci of Bradford, Staff Sgt. Byron Colwell of Sergeant Township,
Pvt. Paul Conner of Smethport, Pvt. John Daly of Kane, Staff Sgt.
Malcolm Dorman of Bradford, Ships Clerk Jame Green of Bradford,
Pvt. William Hauck of Colegrove, Tech. Sgt. Charles McKalip of Kane
and Pvt. Michael Revetti of Bradford.

According to Joel Gilfert, historian and member of the Eldred
World War II Museum’s board of directors, McKean County should be
proud of its military roots.

“This area itself is at the heart of a very strong war effort as
far as our geological location,” Gilfert said. “They were
manufacturing munitions in Bradford and there was National
Munitions in Eldred, where they were filling bombs.”

Gilfert noted that during World War II the population of McKean
County was about 56,000 — 6,000 of those individuals were in
uniform.

“That’s 10 percent of the population,” Gilfert said. “That’s
pretty significant.”

Gilfert also mention the area was laden with women willing to
work for the war effort.

“There was a lot of women workers,” Gilfert said. “The munitions
company in Eldred at any given time had about a 700 person
workforce — 450-500 of those were women.”

According to Gilfert and Stromberg, the area also had a Catholic
priest named Father Liebel who wrote to troops overseas, giving
them local news from Eldred and McKean County. He would collect
current events and mail them to local troops stationed out of the
country to keep them connected. Some of these clippings and other
newspaper archives currently remain stored at Eldred’s World War II
Museum.