Re: A Hero is Coming Home

Date: May 22, 2004

"At long last, hero is coming home
By Tony Dobrowolski Berkshire Eagle Staff

PITTSFIELD -- Sixty years after he fought in World War II, and 36 years after his death, U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Joseph G. Elsensohn Jr. of Pittsfield is finally coming home.

Elsensohn, who was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for extraordinary heroism, the nation's second-highest battle honor, died in Oakland, Calif.,onDec.13, 1968, and was buried in a pauper's grave, some 3,000 miles from home.

But thanks to a determined five-year effort from several local veterans' groups, assistance from state officials, and two Pittsfield funeral homes, Elsensohn's remains were finally disinterred from that Oakland cemetery last week. They will be flown across the country to Albany (N.Y.) International Airport today, and arrive in Pittsfield tomorrow.

A group of motorcyclists from Dalton American Legion Post 155 will escort Elsensohn's body tomorrow as it travels by hearse from the airport to Pittsfield.

Elsensohn will be reinterred on Saturday, May 29, in his family's plot at St. Joseph's Cemetery, where his body will lie near his father's. That date was selected to coincide with the official dedication of the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C. His remains will be kept at the Devanny-Condron Funeral Home on Maplewood Avenue until they are put back in the ground. A wake will take place at St. Joseph's Church on May 28.

"It means a great deal to have my brother back home," said Elsensohn's sister, Eleanor Martin Hebert, who lives in Williamsburg. "It means a great deal to have him here so we can visit his grave and know he's being cared for in a meaningful way.

"He was a very special person," said Hebert, who last saw her brother shortly after she was married in 1958.

Elsensohn's family members have known for about 20 years that he was buried in Oakland, but bringing his body back to Pittsfield has proved to be difficult because of the cost involved.

"We kind of accepted that that was where he was going to be for awhile until we could do something about it," said Elsensohn's daughter, Virginia Staelens of Pittsfield. "I called the cemetery and asked them if there was a way to get him here. The person at the cemetery who answered said the money it would cost you to bring him back would be phenomenal. She said if you ever want anything in your life that you want to buy, you won't be able to do it if you bring him back home."

That all began to change five years ago. In January 1999, several veterans organizations started a fund drive to collect enough money to build a World War II Memorial in front of City Hall. Staelens sent a $10 donation in memory of her father to retired U.S. Army Col. Gregor Young of Pittsfield, the former commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post in Pittsfield. Along with her donation, Staelens sent a letter outlining her father's many accomplishments in World War II and information that he was buried in Oakland in a pauper's grave.

"When Virginia wrote to me -- I was the commander of the post at that time -- her letter came across my desk and it hit me right between the eyes," Young said.

"I think the whole thing was -- and I speak for all the veterans in Pittsfield when I say this -- that when a vet dies, a vet goes out and helps," he said.

"We've showed up for homeless vets, who nobody knew what their name was," he said. "It's a common cause."

Besides the sentiments Virginia expressed about her father in that letter, what also caught Young's attention was Elsensohn's military accomplishments.

Elsensohn, who was born in Pittsfield in April 1925, served in the Army from August 1943 to December 1945. A member of Company A, 551st Parachute Infantry, 82nd Airborne Division, Elsensohn took part in some of the fiercest fighting in Europe.

His unit was involved in the invasion of Italy, the Normandy Invasion -- where he was dropped behind enemy lines in France before the Allied landing took place -- the invasion of southern France, and the Battle of the Bastogne.

Elsensohn was twice wounded in action, in January 1944 during the Sicily-Anzio campaign, and in Toulon, France, in August 1944. He was also captured by the German Army and kept briefly as a POW before escaping. He was awarded 16 other military citations in addition to the Distinguished Service Cross. The Berkshire Eagle, in an article on Elsensohn's exploits, published in June 1945 while he was home on furlough, referred to him as "in all probability, this city's most decorated soldier of World War II."

"He had quite a significant battle record," Young said. "He was in it hot and heavy."

After the war ended, Elsensohn came back to Pittsfield. But he ran into family problems. He married but later separated, and moved to California after he was divorced. Elsensohn apparently slipped into obscurity on the West Coast. According to one account, Elsensohn died alone in his apartment and his body wasn't discovered for a couple of days.

According to Young, Elsensohn had several emotional problems, including frequent nightmares, that were connected to his World War II combat experiences.

Based on what he has learned, Young said he believed Elsensohn may have had post-traumatic stress disorder, a psychiatric condition that wasn't diagnosed until after the Korean War, and not fully understood until after the Vietnam War.

"He was involved in three major invasions and dropped behind enemy lines," Young said. "That takes an awful lot of guts and courage. ... Getting shot two or three times. That's traumatic."

Young said many World War II veterans have suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder but were never treated for it because no one knew what it was.

"It seems like you go to war and fight a war, and that's the end of it," he added. "But some of them carry it to the grave."

Staelens, who remembers her father as "my favorite guy in the world," said her brother, Joseph Elsensohn III, who lives in Big Pine Key, Fla., discovered her father had been buried in Oakland around 20 years ago.

She accompanied her brother to Oakland to visit her father's gravesite. She said they were shocked when they discovered their father had been buried in a pauper's grave on a footpath that allowed people to walk across it.

"I think my brother's words were, 'Did you think Dad would've ever thought he would've ended up like this?' " Staelens said. "Ever since that day, all I thought about was how do I get him back here. ... You can't do it alone."

"It's been a tremendous, tremendous job," Young said.

After he took up the cause five years ago, Young said he wrote letters to the commanders of various veterans organizations throughout Berkshire County asking for their support. He also contacted U.S. Rep. John W. Olver, D-Amherst.

"He did help," Young said. "He found out where he was buried, but then all the doors began to close on us."

Young said he then contacted U.S. Sen. John F. Kerry. "He's a vet," Young said. "I thought maybe he could help. He opened some doors for us. But everything seemed to come down to money."

Then Larry Keefner, the retired manager of Dery Funeral Home on Pittsfield, took an interest in the project. "He got on board and said he would furnish the whole thing," Young said.

But when the cost of bringing Elsensohn's body back to Pittsfield still appeared to be too daunting, Young and Elsensohn's family members finally received the push that brought the project to fruition when David Yon, the managing partner of Devanny-Condron Funeral Home, became involved.

Devanny-Condron is owned by CarriageServicesofHouston, which also owns several funeral homes and cemeteries around the country, including Antioch-Oakland where Elsensohn was buried. Yon, who is also a veteran, contacted Carriage Services and said the company agreed to disinter Elsensohn's remains and pay for them to be shipped to Pittsfield.

"We did it through our company so the family didn't have to pay for any of it," Yon said. "I'm honored to do this. He needs to be here. I believe we need to take care of our vets."

Tomorrow, Elsensohn will finally come home.

"I'll be able to put flowers on his grave," Staelens said yesterday. "I'll be able to go visit him at his grave like any normal person would. I visited my dad's grave once and it wasn't a pleasant experience.

"It means a lot," she said.

Tony Dobrowolski can be reached at tdobrowolski[at]berkshireeagle[dot]com ©1999-2004 New England Newspapers, Inc."