Here is an article about a Clairton native--I've seen the town name a couple times in the past few days so I thought you might be interested. Cecily Sprouse From the Sacramento Bee Honoring WWII vets before their era ends By Sam Stanton Bee Staff Writer (Published Nov. 9, 1999) MARYSVILLE -- Dan Logue had it all figured out. He was 18 years old, had grown up on the banks of the Monongahela River in the Pennsylvania steel town of Clairton, and he headed off to Notre Dame to play football. He must have been a bear of a kid back in 1941, strong enough to qualify for a scholarship as a linebacker under legendary Coach Frank Leahy. But there was a war coming, and as he watched more and more young men getting the news that they had been drafted he knew what he had to do. "They all said, 'You don't have to go,' " the 75-year-old retired Sacramento developer said. But he knew better. The result was four years in the Army, complete with all-expense-paid trips to exotic locations in Europe, the Battle of the Bulge, even a cruise to the Pacific that turned around in mid-journey when the war ended. "I'm telling you, that was a wonderful day," Logue said, laughing at the memory. Today, Logue is circumspect about his wartime experiences, a trait that is almost universal among World War II-era veterans, who still don't understand what all the fuss is about. "So many people did so much more than I did," Logue said. "How can I go around blowing my own horn? We all gave three or four years because we wanted to help our country, then we came home and all we wanted to do was forget about it." So they did. They went back to school, back to work, back to life before the war and, for the most part, didn't talk about their experiences. That reticence is part of the reason there are so few memorials to World War II veterans, a fact that various groups are rushing to remedy by building one in Washington, D.C., before all the veterans from that era are dead. And it is why there is a hole in the middle of Marysville's Napoleon Square Park, where bulldozers are gouging out the base for a Veteran's Memorial that is to be dedicated this year along with a matching one in neighboring Yuba City. The two memorials are being built with donated funds raised largely by the sons of such veterans. They are being designed by the sons, even built by the sons, in a bid to honor their fathers' sacrifices before they all are gone. "We are walking and living with a part of history that will pass us by when they are gone," said Dan Logue Jr., a Marysville Realtor who conceived the plan for the memorials last year as he sat watching Steven Spielberg's epic World War II film, "Saving Private Ryan." The movie was playing at the Cinema 8 theater in Yuba City, where 250 area World War II veterans had been invited to come and watch the film for free. The invitation came from a group the younger Logue had formed that had raised $1,000 in two days to pay the cost of renting out the theater for the men. "I was sitting in this movie and I turned to a friend and said, 'Just think, all these men were there,' " Logue Jr. said. As they left the theater afterward, a crowd of about 70 other moviegoers who were buying tickets or waiting for their films to start stood and spontaneously began applauding the men. So the idea was born: Build memorials to the men before it is too late, and not just one but two, for veterans in both Yuba and Sutter counties. It was hardly a simple task. When Logue Jr. and his friends sat down and figured it out, the plan called for $120,000 to build both memorials, a daunting amount. But they underestimated just how fast the money would come rolling in. A fund-raising dinner featuring a Medal of Honor recipient raised a huge amount in one night, and in the course of four months the group raised $115,000, with donations ranging from a few dollars to thousands of dollars. And, more important than the money was the volunteer labor. Local architects whose fathers were veterans offered their services. City officials found the land. Others helped with materials. Organizers couldn't believe the outpouring. None of those involved in the project are veterans, Logue Jr. said. "That's amazing. It's our way of saying thank you." His experience a few weeks ago was typical. He approached a Marysville contractor named Gary Cooper to ask for a bid on some of the project construction work. The job was worth about $10,000 to $12,000 to his firm, but Cooper decided he didn't want to take money for the work. "I don't know, I just started thinking about things," Cooper said last week as he supervised construction work at the site two blocks west of Marysville's downtown. "If somebody wanted me to go overseas to go to war and leave my home and leave my business and my family, I just felt like they don't get enough recognition, so I agreed to donate it." Like the others in the project, the 43-year-old Cooper is not a veteran and, like the others, Cooper downplays his contribution. "It's just not really a big thing on my end," he said. Cooper's late father, who served in the Korean War, probably would differ with that assessment, as would many veterans. But it's hard to get them to admit that building a monument to their service is a big deal. "Hell, we never even thought about a monument," Dan Logue Sr. said. "I've been back to Washington a dozen times, but I never looked for a monument to World War II." And what does he think of the two monuments his son hopes to unveil in the next two months? "I think it's fine," Logue Sr. said. "But I'm not going to be here long enough to look at it."