ROCHESTER, N.Y. – The World War II Memorial at the Blue Cross Arena is missing dozens of names of local men who died in the war. The mistake was found by Steve Momano, a Navy man who started looking up names and discovered the great mistake.
“I started looking and there’s another one. And another half hour later there’s another one,” Momano said. “And I thought – I wonder why they’re not there?”
Nick Stefanovic, a Marine, veteran of the war in Afghanistan and the Director of Veteran Services in Monroe County, took the problem to Mayor Malik Evans just after he was elected four years ago.
“It was the first thing I approached him with,” Stefanovic said. “And his immediate response was ‘oh my God.'”
“He had talked about how the names had been missing,” Mayor Evans said. “And I thought, in my mind, we got to find a way to honor these folks to make sure they are memorialized.”
The city is now paying to have the missing names etched into a new plaque.
“And the city has agreed to create a new plaque to add those names to this wall and this space,” Stefanovic said pointing to an open space on the wall next to the existing World War II memorial.
Berkeley Brean: “How do you think those names didn’t get on the list in the first place?”
Nick Stefanovic: “This memorial is decades old so I have to imagine the technology for them finding names was not where it is today. And I suspect nobody really thought we had forgotten names until he looked into it.”
“Nowadays we spend so much time talking about athletes, actors and whatever and we have heroes right in our own midst and we don’t even know about it,” Momano said. “And these people were heroes.”
Berkeley Brean: “And now their names will be where they ought to be.”
Steve Momano: “Where they should be. People need to know their names.”
Momano gave the county and city a list of 78 names. The plaque is still being made. Stefanovic told News10NBC they hope they can put it up in the summer or on Veteran’s Day in the fall.
See the list of 78 names here.
AI assisted with the formatting of this story. Click here to see how WHEC News 10 uses AI
Local Navy veteran discovers dozens of WWII heroes missing from memorial, sparking action from city officials WHEC.com.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Local Navy veteran discovers dozens of WWII heroes missing from memorial, sparking action from city officials )
Also on site :
- I Tried 15 Different Brands of Potato Chips and Found a New Favorite
- Paris arrested Telegram founder to meddle in Romanian election — Moscow
- This Tony Nominee Was Working for a Tasker App After Starring on Broadway (Exclusive)