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Most of the information below was gleaned from War Department announcements that appeared in the Syracuse Herald-Journal. Some of the servicemen and women listed on these pages did not live in Solvay or the town of Geddes, but in neighborhoods associated more with the village than with the city of Syracuse where their homes were located. I've corrected what I believe were spelling errors, particularly in regard to names. However, I'm sure errors remain. To correct them or to add people I inadvertently overlooked, contact me at the email address at the bottom of the page. — JACK MAJOR
 
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Mrs. Myrtle Laing of Brewerton, RD-1, has received a War Department telegram advising her that her son, Pfc. Charles E. Laing, was killed in action in Italy November 19.

Pfc. Laing was born in Geneva and attended schools at Seneca Falls and Geneva before coming to Syracuse about 14 years ago and attending school at Solvay. He had been overseas a year, serving in North Africa and Italy. (12/14/44)
 
Corp. Carmon M. LaManna, son of John LaManna of 107 Cogswell Avenue, Solvay, was awarded the Combat Infantryman Badge for participation in combat against the enemy with the Fifth Army in Italy. (1/11/45)
His brother, Joseph Lamanna, also was in the Army, having been inducted in January, 1943. Both brothers worked for Allied Chemical. Joseph Lamanna, nicknamed "Smokey," died in 1993 at the age of 84. Carmon Lamanna died in 2006 at the age of 88.
Four sons and a grandson of Mr. and Mrs. Florindo LaManna, 508 Third Street, Solvay, are serving in the armed forces. Sgt. Florindo LaManna Jr. is serving in the Mediterranean theater. Master Sgt. Michael LaManna had a reunion in England with his brother, Corp. John LaManna. Sgt. Frank LaManna also is in England. Pvt. Paul DeGuilio, grandson and son of Mr. and Mrs. Mike DeGuilio, 205 Darrow Avenue, Solvay, is stationed at Suffolk Army Air Base, Long Island. (7/30/44)
 

Sgt. Robert F. Lawrence, husband of Mrs. Rose Marie Lawrence, 206 Seventh Avenue, Solvay, was promoted to his present rank from corporal with an Air Force service group overseas on the Atlantic side. (3/9/44)

Sgt. Robert Lawrence, Solvay, was discharged from Newport News, Virginia. (12/31/45)
 
Pfc. James J. Lawton, son of Mrs. Elizabeth C. Lawton, of 831 State Fair Boulevard, Lakeland, was reported killed in action in Italy, according to a list of casualties released today by the War Department. (12/15/44)
 
S/Sgt. Loren Leach, 962 State Fair Boulevard, Lakeland, was discharged from Fort Dix, NJ. (9/24/45)
Loren L. Leach earned eight battle stars. He died in 1998 at the age of 88.
 

Pvt. Walter Legawiec has arrived in the Middle East, according to word received by his wife, Mrs. Mary Legawiec, 305 Charles Avenue, Solvay. Inducted in May, 1942, he is serving with the Army Signal Corps. His brother, Sgt. Stephen Legawiec, who enlisted in April. 1942, has been serving overseas since April, 1942. He is in the Coast Artillery. (5/1/43)

Sgt. Stephen Legawiec has returned to his base overseas after a 12-day furlough at the home of his sister, Mrs. Lial Lester, 100 Herkimer Street, and with friends. He is serving with the Coast Artillery and has been in service since April, 1941. His brother, Pvt. Walter Legawiec, is stationed somewhere in Iran with the Signal Corps. Walter has been overseas seven months. (7/14/43
Walter Legawiec retired in 1981 from Crucible Specialty Metals and moved to Tempe, Arizona, where he died in 2003 at the age of 84. Stephen Legawiec died in 1985.
 
Sgt. Joseph Letizia, 105 Boyd Avenue, Solvay, son of Mr. and Mrs. Frank Letizia and husband of the former Evelyn Cousineau, was promoted to his present rank from corporal. He enjoyed a recent 10-day furloug with his parents. Sgt. Letizia entered the Army last March and saw service outside the United States. Mrs. Letizia accompanied her husband back to Seattle, Washington, where he is now stationed. (10/9/43)
 
Pvt. Wayne J. Lewis, propeller specialist at Daniel Field, Georgia, was granted a furlough with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Erniest W. Lewis of 108 Fay Road. Before entering the Army he was with the Rome Air Command. He has trained in Florida, Texas and Georgia. (7/31/44)
Wayne J. Lewis was owner and operator of Grimlow Restaurant-Diner on West Genesee Street for 20 years. He died in 1991 while vacationing in Plymouth, Vermont. He was 70.
 

Ernest Libertone, 70, of 417 Abell Avenue, Solvay, died in 1995 in Pinella, Florida, while vacationing. He was an Army Air Corps veteran of World War 2. He retired from Carrier Corporation where he was a welder for more than 20 years.
 
S/Sgt. John Liconish, 604 State Fair Boulevard, Lakeland, was discharged from Fort Dix, New Jersey. (7/1/45)
The spelling of the last name may be a typographical error. Perhaps it should be spelled Licorish.
 

Lieut. Thaddeus J. Liro, Solvay, was discharged from Fort Dix, New Jersey. (11/16/45) Referred to as "Ted" Liro in the 1940 U. S. Census, he was listed as the stepson of Pete Medyn, who married Liro's mother, Bridget. Thaddeus J. Liro later wrote "The History of the 257 Ordnance Medium Maintenance Company."

His brother, Stanley H. Liro, also was a veteran of World War 2. He retired from Church and Dwight Company in 1978. He lived in Solvay at 806 Third Street and died in 1989 at the age of 72.
 
Seaman Second Class Jacob A. Litz, 308 First Street, Solvay, completed basic training at Sampson and was granted a furlough before returning there for assignment. (5/18/44)
Jacob A. Litz moved to Camillus and retired in 1990 after 44 years as a steelworker at Crucible Specialty Metals. He died in 2000 at the age of 74, survived by his wife, the former Alma Housman; a daughter, Kathy Kenty of Camillus; a son, Jay of Baldwinsville, and his brother, Alphonse (below).
Alphonse E. Litz, a lifetime resident of Solvay, served with the 332nd Squadron, 94th Bomb Group of the Eight Air Force based in Edmunds St. Bury, England. As a tailgunner aboard a B-17, he flew 23 combat missions over Europe, attaining the rank of sergeant. His decorations included European Expeditionary Medal with two battle stars; Air Medal with two Bronze Clusters; European, African, Middle-Eastern Campaign Medal with two Bronze Stars; American Campaign Medal, and Air Combat Action Medal.
Alphonse E. Litz died in 2010 at the age of 84. Survivors included his wife, Fanny, and six children. He was a home builder and craftsman.
 
Home on furlough recently, three Syracuse men who enlisted together in the Army before Pearl Harbor had their first reunion since that time. They are Sgt. Anthony Lizzi, 409 Chemung Street, Solvay, stationed at Atlantic City, New Jersey; Sgt. Roy Micelli of 822 Avery Avenue, Syracuse, stationed at Dothen, Alabama, and Sgt. Angelo Sackell, 312 Essex Street, stationed in New York City. They all enlisted September 2, 1941, all are 23 years old and all were born in the month of August. They attended Gere, Porter and Vocational High Schools together and all have brothers in the service. (1/15/43)
Three sons of Mr. and Mrs. John Lizzi, 409 Chemung Street, and a cousin of the boys are in the armed services. Staff Sgt. Anthony Lizzi, 24, has been overseas four months and has been in service two years as an aerial gunner. Sgt. Michael Lizzi, 23, a first class ground crew mechanic in the Air Corps, is stationed at Great Falls, Montana. Pvt. Alfred Lizzi, 21, is in the Medical Corps at Palm Springs, California. Pvt. Joseph DeStefano, 19, son of Mr. and Mrs. Sam DeStefano, 405 Chemung Street, a cousin of the Lizzi boys, is stationed with a tank destroyer outfit at Camp Hood, Texas. (6/6/43)

Three Syracuse boys who grew up together and have not seen each other since entering the armed forces recently had a reunion in one of London’s Red Cross Clubs. They are Staff Sgt. Michael Lizzi, son of Mr. and Mrs. John Lizzi, 409 Chemung Street, now stationed in England; Pvt. Joseph Destefano, son of Mr. and Mrs. Sam Destefano, now stationed in North Africa, and Staff Sgt. Peter Paul Galante, son of Mrs. Michael Galante.

Sgt. Lizzi is an airplane mechanic who has served overseas for the last five months. He has two brothers in service, Sgt. Anthony Lizzi, an aerial gunner in North Africa, and Corp. Alfred Lizzi, stationed in California with the Medical Corps.

Pvt. Destefano has been in overseas service for seven months, and Sgt. Galante has been overseas a year and a half of his three years in service. He has two brothers in service, Pfc. Albert Galante in North Africa, and Daniel Galante, S1c, in the Navy. (11/14/43)

Alfred D. Lizzi, who retired from Allied Chemical Corporation, where he was employed 39 years as a plumber, died in 1989 at the age of 67.

Michael A. Lizzi, who retired from Carrier Corporation, where he had been an inspector, died in 1996 at the age of 75. He was a member of the Solvay Tigers Athletic Club and the Solvay-Geddes Youth Center.

Anthony "Duke" Lizzi was a sheet metal worker at Carrier Corporation for 20 years gefore retiring in 1981. He died in 2009, a resident of Fairmount. He was 90 years old.
 

T/Sgt. Nicholas A. Lombard, 22, son of Mr. and Mrs. Michael Lombard of 230 Beach Road, Solvay, was wounded in action in France, July 26, and his parents have received the Purple Heart awarded to him.

Sgt. Lombard was hit in the shoulder by shrapnel and a letter from him said he was about ready to return to action. He is one of three brothers in service. T/3 Vincent Lombard is now in New Guinea and A/C William Lombard is stationed at San Antonio, Texas.

T/Sgt. Lombard was graduated from Solvay High School in 1940 and entered the Army that October. He trained at Fort Devens, Camp Blanding and Indiantown Gap, going overseas in August, 1942. (8/30/44)
 
John L. Long, 401 Center Street, Solvay, was inducted into the Army in August, 1943. He became an aerial gunner on a B-24 Liberator and in September, 1944, was awarded a second Oak Leaf Cluster to the Air Medal at an Eighth Air Force Liberator Station in England. John L. Long was married to the former Angela Renetta of Syracuse and had a daughter, Mary-Louise, before he entered the service. Mrs. Long lived with her parents during the war; afterward she and her husband and daughter moved to Liverpool. When John L. Long died I haven't yet discovered, but he predeceased his wife who passed away in 2011 at the age of 93.
 
S/Sgt. Rocco Longo, Solvay, was discharged from Fort Dix, New Jersey. (12/28/45)
 

Pvt. Edward Longwinter served with the 14th Armored Division. He returned to Solvay in 1945 and remained there until his death in 1986. He was 75. Longwinter lived at 1101 Third Street. He retired from Crucible Specialty Metals Division of Colt Industries. He was survived by his wife, the former Mary Cellana; a son, Frank Maestri of Fairmount; a daughter, Zita Siriano of Solvay; three grandchildren and several nieces and nephews. He was buried in Greenlawn Memorial Park, Warners.
 
What follows is an incredible story, so incredible that it seems like the plot of a Hollywood war movie. So maybe those old John Wayne movies weren't so far-fetched after all.
Syracuse Herald-Journal, April 1, 1945
SAN ANTONIO, Texas — T/Sgt. Nicholas J. Lopresti of Solvay survived a crash landing at sea, 36 hours in a drifting raft, a 10-hour swim, and knife and bayonet wounds in hand-to-hand combat with a Jap.

Lopresti, son of Mrs. Rose Lopresti, 2221 Milton Avenue, Solvay, is now at the San Antonio Aviation Cadet Center awaiting reassignment. He was the only conscious member of a bomber crew when it crash-landed in the sea off New Guinea last October. Two members of the crew were dead, the engineer had a broken leg, and was unconscious with the remainder of the crew.

“I managed to get out the life raft and get the others into it,” Lopresti said. “We lost our medical supplies and rations, and I was the only man with a pistol. We drifted for 18 hours and finally landed on a small island off New Guinea.

The bombardier went off into the jungle to keep a lookout while Lopresti and the others worked on the engineer’s broken leg. They’d managed to splint and bind up the leg when the bombardier was heard shouting, “Japs!”

“I grabbed my gun and the other fellows picked up rocks and clubs just as four Japs broke from the jungle onto the beach,” Lopresti said.

“I put a bullet in each of the Japs, and all of us, with the exception of the engineer, received knife and bayonet wounds, mostly superficial. I got a bayonet through my right hip and a knife stab in the back, not a deep one, though. We killed the Japs.”

Lopresti and the crew then climbed back into the life raft and put out to sea again. Eighteen hours later, five miles off shore, the raft deflated, tumbling them into the water.

“The raft would float, but couldn’t take any weight,” Lopresti said. “The pilot and myself were the only ones who could swim, so the other fellows hung on the raft while the pilot and I swam, towing the thing behind us. We hit out for shore again.”

This time they landed about three miles away from their original beach, right near a whole Jap encampment boasting two air strips and oil supply dumps, Lopresti said. They slipped past beach guards to hide in the jungle.

For the next five days the party hid from searching Jap patrols. “One patrol came to within 20 feet of us,” Lopresti said, “and missed us. The growth was so thick you couldn’t see in front of you.”

One night Lopresti and the pilot slipped down to the beach and gathered rocks to lay out the word “help” on the sand. “A P-47 pilot spotted us on the eighth day and buzzed over our hideout,” Lopresti said. “We had a broken bit of mirror with us and we blinkered our identity to him. A flying boat with plenty of fighter escort to keep the Japs busy landed and picked us up.”

Lopresti was recommended for the Distinguished Service Cross after his release from the hospital. He already wears the Air Medal, with three Oak Leaf Clusters, the Asiatic-Pacific ribbon with three battle stars and the Purple Heart.

Nicholas J. LoPresti, 60, who had moved to Camillus, died August 30, 1983. He owned an operated LoPresti Basement and Waterproofing Company. Among his survivors were daughters Elizabeth Micho of Marietta and Rosemary Gandia of East Syracuse.
 
John D. Lotito, who lived in Solvay at the time of his death, in 1991, was a lifetime resident of the area and a Purple Heart recipient as a member of the Army in World War 2. He retired as a quality control inspector with the federal government.
 
Ensign John F. Luchsinger, son of Fred J. Luchsinger, 913 Second Street, Solvay, won his Navy “Wings of Gold” and was commissioned in the Naval Reserve following completion of prescribed flight training at the Naval Air Training Center, Pensacola, Florida. (6/6/43)
John F. Luchsinger Sr., a 1942 graduate of Solvay High School, moved to Patchogue after the war and worked at Swezey's Department Store, retiring on May 1, 1992, as vice president. Three weeks later he died at the age of 71.
 
Pvt. Anthony Lucio Jr. of 418 Chemung Street enjoyed a recent furlough with his wife and family. He is stationed at New London, Connecticut. (5/29/43)

Anthony "Tony" Lucio was a test driver for Chrysler Corporation, retiring in 1980. He moved to Camillus where he died in 2007 at the age of 85.
 
Corp. Wayne Luetchford, son of Mrs. Ethel Luetchford, 136 Boulder Road, Solvay, enjoyed a furlough and is now on maneuvers near Nashville, Tennessee. (12/7/43)
Wayne Luetchford died in 1983.
 

Syracuse Herald-Journal, July 18, 1943
Seaman First Class Edward J. Lundy Jr. returned to Syracuse yesterday after having been rescued from a life raft following the torpedoing of his ship. He and 13 others on a raft were picked up by a sub-chaser and landed at Norfolk, Virginia.

He was a member of the Navy gun crew on the small merchant ship, Maltran, which was sunk in the Caribbean early in July. All 35 members of the merchant crew and the 12 members of the Navy gun crew were rescued. Others were picked up by another ship and landed at Miami.

Lundy, son of Mr. and Mrs. Edward G. Lundy of 304 Cherry Road, said he was none the worse for his experience He said the crew had plenty of time to get off the ship before it sank. He lost everything he had, however.

Seaman Lundy enlisted in the Navy about 10 months ago and later was assigned to a gun crew on the ship. He is a graduate of Solvay High School and was a member of the hockey team there. He has a brother, Staff Sgt. Wallace Lundy, in the Army. Another brother, James R. Lundy of 810 Avery Avenue, also is in service.

“It was close quarters on the raft,” said Lundy, “but it wasn’t so bad. It could have been worse.”

He will remain here about 24 days before returning to service.
 
Pvt. Foster W. Lutzy, son of Mr. and Mrs. Henry J. Lutzy of 208 Hazard Street, Solvay, has successfully completed a special course of instruction at the Signal Corps School of Camp Murphy, Florida. (11/21/42)
Foster W. Lutzy, a Solvay High School graduate, retired in 1981 as an engineer for New York Telephone. He had moved to Syracuse, but was a member of Solvay United Methodist Church and a former member of the Solvay Volunteer Fire Department. The Army Air Force veteran died in 2002 at the age of 81.
 
Lieut. Leo F. Lynch, son of Mrs. Katherine Lynch, 577 South Wilbur Avenue, was promoted to his present rank at Fort Lewis, Washington. His wife, the former Miss Eleanor Pieri, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Jeff Pieri, 831 Woods Road, Solvay, is now residing with him. Corp. Frank A. Lynch, a brother, is in the Signal Corps at Camp Crowder, Missouri. (7/29/43)
 
Pfc. James Lynn of the Marines, husband of Mrs. James Lynn, 714 Fay Road, Westvale, has been awarded the Silver Star medal. He is the son of P. J. Lynn, 515 Boyden Street. Private Lynn has a brother, Robert, in the Air Force. James was given the award for being one of six volunteers to accompany an officer in the Solomons in an attempt to destroy enemy positions. The positions were put out of action under direct observation of hostile forces. Pfc. Lynn entered service January 5, 1942. (4/28/43)
 
 
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For more on Solvay way back when, check out
the Solvay-Geddes Historical Society
 
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