Seaman Ronald P. Yuhas finally coming home from Vietnam

Yahoo

3 days ago

Third Class Petty Officer Ronald P. Yuhas was aboard a Navy landing craft laden with tons of ammunition when it was struck by a North Vietnamese rocket in Da Nang harbor on Feb. 25, 1969.
One of more than 25 sailors who lost their lives in the ensuing explosion, Yuhas is coming home to Shenandoah 56 years later.
His stay, however, will be brief.
Ronald Yuhas (SUBMITTED PHOTO)
After a service at Walukiewicz-Oravitz Fell Funeral Home at 11a.m. on June 12, Yuhas' remains will depart for burial with full military honors in Arlington National Cemetery on June 23.
From enlistment in the U.S. Navy at age 17 to his final resting place in Arlington just short of six decades later, Yuhas' saga is one of courage, tragedy and the undying quest to bring a fallen warrior home to the country for which he gave his life.
Patrick McGrath, who's married to Yuhas' older sister, Marlene, spearheaded a drive to have his brother-in-law's remains exhumed from the U.S. Naval Cemetery in Guam and reinterred in sacred ground across the Potomac River from the nation's Capitol.
Marlene McGrath, a retired nurse-anesthetist in Maryland, still grieves for her brother.
Ronald Yuhas in Vietnam (Family Provided Photo)
'It's a very emotional time,' she said. 'I'm sad for his loss, but happy that he will finally be buried in a manner befitting the sacrifice he made for his country.'
Patriotic family
Ronald Yuhas was fresh out of Shenandoah High School when he enlisted in the Navy on Sept. 22, 1966.
Three months short of his 18th birthday, his enlistment required the permission of his parents, Peter and Helen Yuhas.
A decorated soldier in his own right, Peter Yuhas saw action in the European, North African and Pacific theaters during World War II.
Ronald Yuhas in Vietnam (Family Provided Photo)
A member of the 1301st Engineering Combat Battalion, he served in Normandy, the Rhineland and Ardennes in Europe, the Middle East and Philippines.
Athletically inclined, young Yuhas played in the Little League and was a guard and punter for the J. W. Cooper High School Blue Devils football team. An ardent weight lifter, his stature earned him the nickname 'Bear.'
Born on Christmas Day 1948, Yuhas served as an altar boy in St. Michael's Ukrainian Catholic Church, Shenandoah.
Upon hearing of his death, Mayor Albert J. Matunis declared a day of mourning in Shenandoah.
'Ronald Yuhas was an All-American, a real American, and the least we can do is offer a solemn salute, Matunis said.
A boyhood friend, Edward F. Krusinsky, recalled Yuhas as a happy-go-lucky guy, the life of the party.
The gravestone for Ronald Yuhas in Guam's Veteran Cemetery. (SUBMITTED PHOTO)
'He was a good guy, well-liked,' Krusinsky told a Pottsville Republican reporter. 'I don't think he had an enemy in the world.'
Joyce Homa, Yuhas' younger sister, still remembers the day Naval officers broke the news of his death to her parents in Shenandoah.
'My mother thought she saw the explosion on television,' recalled Homa, 71, a Mahanoy City homemaker. 'She said, 'My God, that's Ronny's boat'.'
Seaman Yuhas was 20 years old, and in the final stages of his tour of duty when he died. He was scheduled to be married after he returned to Shenandoah, Homa said.
Though she was in 10th grade at the time, the incident remains fixed in Homa's mind.
'When she saw the Naval officers coming,' she recalled, 'my mother passed out.'
Date with destiny
A Boatswain's Mate 3, seaman Yuhas was aboard the USS Mount McKinley when it anchored off Da Nang in February 1969.
Named for the highest mountain peak in the U.S., it was the Mount McKinley class flagship, equipped for amphibious landings.
The ship's storied history included the assault on Okinawa in World War II and ferrying Gen. Douglas MacArthur in the landing on Inchon during the Korean War in 1950.
Yuhas was aboard a Landing Craft Utility, or LCU, delivering munitions from the Mount McKinley when North Vietnamese rockets rained in on naval facilities in Da Nang. The LCU received a direct hit, detonating the munitions aboard.
The devastating attack killed more than 25 sailors, and wounded another 30 or so. At least two landing craft were destroyed.
Yuhas was not immediately recovered. Missing for two days, he was found in the harbor and declared deceased on Oct. 27, 1969.
Greeted with honor
With his family's permission, seaman Yuhas was interred in the U.S. Naval Cemetery in Guam.
His parents were told their son's remains could not be positively identified, McGrath said, and so they consented to the overseas burial.
McGrath, who was a civilian contractor under government supervision in Vietnam, was uncomfortable with the burial arrangement.
But Peter Yuhas, the sailor's father, was not a man to be questioned.
After Peter Yuhas died at age 94 in 2018, McGrath began thinking about bringing Ronald Yuhas home.
In 2022, embarked on a nearly three-year quest to bring Yuhas back to the U.S.
The federal government's position was that Yuhas had received a proper burial, and was not entitled to be disinterred and shipped home at government expense.
Undeterred, the McGraths paid for the disinterment, a casket and a United Airlines flight from Guam to the U.S. In addition, they made the funeral arrangements in Shenandoah and Arlington.
Around 4 p.m. on Thursday, May 29, Yuhas' remains arrived at Philadelphia International Airport. Pat McGrath and his son, Daniel, were on the tarmac to greet the flight.
The pilot made an announcement to the passengers that disembarking would be delayed until a Vietnam veteran's remains would be unloaded, McGrath said. Passengers onboard peered from the plane's windows as a United Airlines truck with an American flag on top pulled up to the cargo bay and unloaded a shipping container with the casket inside.
At long last, Third Class Petty Officer Ronald P. Yuhas was on U.S. soil once again.