 | | Sgt. Alfred S. Lubojacky
| | | | |
| Almost 10 years ago, members of the Lubojacky family stood by a marker bearing the name of Sgt. Alfred S. Lubojacky of the United States Army Air Force at a service during a family reunion at Davis-Greenlawn Cemetery in Rosenberg. The ceremony at the Graveside of his parents, Joe and Louise Lubojacky, honored the memory of the son, known as "Buddy," lost during an air battle after the B-17 was attacked over Dresden, Germany in World War II on Feb. 14, 1945.
On May 8, 2005, in the 60th year since Lubojacky was listed as MIA, some of those same relatives will stand at a memorial site near the village of Hridelec in the Czech Republic marking the spot where the empty B-17 plane, on which Buddy was the ball-turret gunner, finally crashed that same day.
Just as at the empty grave in Rosenberg, he is not there. But where do his remains lie? Research continues in the Czech Republic on that question.
Other members of the crew were Leon "Greek" Nahmias, tail-gunner; Frank McDonough, armorer; James Standlee, engineer; Hardin "Field" McChesney, radio operator; Joseph Sicard, bombardier; Bob Whitelaw, co-pilot; Louis Wilson, navigator; and Kenneth Streun, pilot. Several of these men's remembrances or those from their families were chronicled from research by Lubojacky's niece, Barbara Neal, now of California, in the 2001 story. The page was headlined "One family, one search, one hero."
While all the other guys successfully parachuted out, one at a time even with grave wounds, they all lived and were captured by the Nazis. Only two are alive now: McChesney, who now lives in Bowling Green, Ky., and Lee Nahmias, who resides in Flushing, N.Y. Neal has been in contact with both recently.
Of the group that stood at the marker in Rosenberg to honor their parents and uncle, only four of Buddy's siblings remain: Olga Kaminsky of Sealy, Alice Prosise and Ann Mikeska of Rosenberg, and Walt Lubojacky of Oklahoma. In 2002, both Ellen Poythress of Alabama and Sylvia Galler of Rosenberg passed away.
After the 2001 information, Neal had kept on with the research and the email messages to any who would respond. In 2002, at the funeral of her Aunt Sylvia Galler in Rosenberg, she learned from Ruby Lubojacky that an article in a Czech genealogy publication was seeking to reach the family members of Alfred Lubojacky. The article in the Texas Czech Genealogical Society written by Dr. Josef Simicek (in Czech) had been translated into English and put into the June 2002 "Ceske Stopy - Czech Footprints," seeking information on behalf of others. This turned out to be Milos Podzimek of the Czech Republic, known as "The Bombers Fan," who first tried to track down the Lubojacky family in December 2000. It was in 2003 that Neal finally had an intermediary whose friend was going to Lichnov, near Novy Jicin, to deliver Neal's requests for information to Dr. Simicek. The traveler brought back information and a Czech letter Simicek had received Dec. 9, 2000 from Podzimek.
This past Christmas, Neal learned new information from the tragedy, this time directly from Podzimek, a man interested in the history of World War II, especially the air war. As a member of the Ornamental Society of Army History (OSAH), Podzimek told Neal he concentrates on the fates of airmen crew of the aircrafts which crashed "in our area," in what was Czechoslovakia and in Poland and Germany. "The story of B-17 crew, there was Alfred, I study and search for 15 years ago!" he wrote.
Included in what Podzimek had recently found was the German officer's report, which was translated for Neal by W.M. Von-Maszewski, head of the genealogy department at George Memorial Library in Richmond. Her aunt, Alice Prosise, had suggested she contact him.
From the German report Podzimek had found, Neal was shocked to learn that Buddy's body was found by the Nazi police with a partly opened parachute on Feb. 15, 1945 and with a wound to the thigh. The "parachutist indeed was identified. His tag showed his name, but the ID number was damaged and not readable.
"It makes me so sad to think that was known then, and the information was never relayed to the family," Neal said.
On Jan. 1, Podzimek sent her several maps by email, the first with a red arrow pointing to the village of Hridelec, close to the spa town of Lazne Belohrad. That's where the monument is being placed at the site 30 kilometers north of the county seat of Hradec Kralove, 100 km east northeast of Prague.
On another map, the red arrow points out the village of Merboltice, where the Nazi police found "Buddy's" body. That location is 20 km east of Usti on the Elbe River in Northern Bohemia. The left end of the arrow points to the village of Hor. Zalezly, where the plane's McDonough, who was wounded, landed by parachute.
Neal's correspondent told her that in his search, he got many of the materials (documents regarding the aircraft and its crew) from the USA, and that he had been in contact with Sicard, McChesney, and Whitelaw some years ago. He said he sent them letters this year, but had no reply.
He also sent a picture of the museum that is being built inside a bunker, a structure from the "Czechoslovak Frontier Defenses 1935-1938," close to the town of Hronov.
Most of those sites will be visited in early May by family members and others from Fort Bend County.
Neal knew that she and other family members would definitely want to be there for the dedication of the monument. And she knew that it would be
a logical opportunity for her family members who had never done so, to
be able to see the towns and villages in Moravia that the family's Franek and Lubojacky ancestors left in the 1800s to come to Texas. Neal very much wanted to share this dedication ceremony with the family.
However, having traveled in the Czech Republic once before, she knew that arranging the logistics of how they could all get to Hridilec
from Prague, would be difficult. How to get
them to the areas of Moravia that she wanted them to see - all this
would be impossible for her to plan from California. She knew that
unless it was all planned "seamlessly," that it would not be a trip that
relatives and crew could even attempt.
She felt she needed someone familiar with arranging such travel
details in the Czech Republic, and knew that Fort Bend County would have
more people experienced there (and able to speak and write the language), than available where she lives.
In talks with her aunt, Ann Mikeska she learned that Jerry and JoannFabrygel of Needville had handled all the arrangements for Mikeska's 1998 visit to the Czech Republic. Neal said, "So, the choice was logical to ask them to help with the logistics of being able to honor one of Fort Bend County's sons, and to arrange time to see the villages of his, and all the family's, ancestors."
So far, family members going on the trip, which leaves May 5 for Prague and returns on May 15 from Vienna, Austria through Paris, are: Ann and Jim Mikeska of Rosenberg, daughter, Shawna Sandel, sons Clint and Cody and their wives; Walt and Betty Lubojacky of Oklahoma; Charles and Barbara Neal of California, Edna Kundel; Everett and Connie Kaminsky of Houston; and, hopefully, the Neals two daughters and a son-in-law.
Others who expect to go are Guy and Betty Humphrey and crew member of the B-17, Field McChesney of Bowling Green, Ky. and his wife.
(In February 2001, The Herald-Coaster in a Life & Times article reported the Lubojacky family's quest to find information about the fate of Army Air Force Sgt. Alfred Stanly Lubojacky, who went missing in action Valentine's Day, 1945 after a plane battle over Dresden, Germany. That January was the year they got some closure after 56 years of wondering. His niece, Barbara Neal of California, had contacted Lubojacky's fellow crew members and relatives and shared her findings with the family.)
|
