listing/roster of Charleroi, Pennsylvania High School Graduates/Alumni


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    THE 60's
      Margie Surovchak, '68
      Sam Woncheck, '69
      Paul Valovich, '61
      Jerry Parola, '69 IN MEMORIAM
      Stan Kemp, '63
      Libero A. (Lee) Tremonti, '60
      John M. Valovich, '63
      Don Saunders, '63
      Carol Semantic Claybaugh, '62
      Paul Hubinon, '60
      Pat Sanders Murphy, '66
      Cal Mongomery, '66
      William 'Gus' Pagonis, '60

Vietnam anniversary bittersweet in Charleroi... By Chris Buckley, Valley Independent, April 30, 2005
Diane McDonough still remembers the day her brother Jerry Parola boarded a plane for Vietnam.

"I was crying," McDonough said. "He told my son, who was two at the time, 'Uncle Jerry is going over, but I'll be back. I'm going to do something right so when you grow up, you won't have to go into the service.'"

That was the last time she saw her brother.

Within months, Parola would die a hero's death in Vietnam - the first of Charleroi's sons to die in that war.

Today marks the 30th anniversary of the fall of Saigon - an event recognized as the end of the Vietnam War era.

Parola was born in 1949 and grew up on Lower Meadow Avenue in the Magic City.

He quit school in 11th grade and joined the Army at the recruiting office in Charleroi, enlisting July 3, 1967.

He went through basic training at Fort Jackson, S.C., and was assigned to a paratrooper unit at Fort Polk, La.

After sustaining a broken ankle during combat training, he was transferred to Company A, Second Battalion, Fifth Calvary, First Air Calvary.

Parola was serving as a gunner on a helicopter when he was killed in action on Oct. 28, 1968.

The family would receive four different, conflicting reports about his death.

Then one day, Parola's platoon leader, Sgt. Dave Meno, of Texas, called the family to tell them the actual events of that day.

Parola was leading his platoon through a jungle when they encountered a Viet Cong force. He fought the enemy while his platoon got into better position to join the battle. He saved the lives of at least two of the men in his platoon before sustaining mortal machine-gun fire wounds to the chest.

He was recommended for various citations for his heroic action in battle.

Parola received 10 medals, including the Purple Heart, Silver Star and even the Military Medal and Gallantry Cross with palm from the Republic of South Vietnam.

McDonough still remembers the day she learned about her brother's death.

"I was living in Monessen and my aunt called," McDonough said. "She said, 'Jerry's gone.' I said, 'What do you mean he's gone?'"

It took two weeks for Parola's body to be returned home.

"That was the worst two weeks I could live through," McDonough said. "I was dumbfounded. It was very devastating that it took two weeks for him to come home."

Chris Buckley can be reached at cbuckley@tribweb.com or (724) 684-2642.