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Veterans Day is a time to remember and honor all those who have served in our military. Looking back at a previous article, I am honored to remember the service of my grandfathers and those who worked so hard in our local mills and plants to help win the wars of our past. Those who have said yes to service and have given of their time and energy to protect our country deserve our heartfelt thanks. Truly it is due to their sacrifices that we have the nation we live in today.
My maternal grandfather, Joseph D. Carpini, served as an M.P. in England, France, Belgium and, finally, in April 1945, Germany. My paternal grandfather, Paul M. Zuros, was first sent to the Aleutian Islands to prepare for a possible Japanese invasion of Alaska in the early years of the war. He was later sent to Europe, serving in France, Belgium, Germany and Austria by the end. Both men traveled extensively during the war years, and both gave their early 20s to the Army. It is this sacrifice and those of countless others we often take for granted. On Veterans Day, when I look into the faces of my children, I remember that so many gave so much for this life we live. Thank you somehow falls short.
My grandfathers both came from Weirton and experienced the rise and later boom of the steel industry. So much was built and enlarged at Weirton Steel in anticipation of World War II. Expansion and enlargement of the capacities of furnaces and output was the order of the day. Today, when I look at the sites of the mills and factories of the former Weirton Steel Corp., it is with mixed emotions. I know that the era of history that enabled companies like Weirton Steel to boom, are over. The time to look to the future is here. It was in that same vein that when the great BOP, or “Mill of the Future” was built in the mid-1960s, another building, tied with much history and memories, was demolished to make way for the future.
Along Main street in Weirton, close to the Main Office, a group of warehouses was transformed in the 1940s to produce the 8-inch Howitzer shell, one of the few completed products ever made at Weirton Steel during the war. This was an incredible operation from casting the steel for the projectile, to engineering and building the machines to make the shells, to sending the completed shell casing on their way to the front lines. Weirton Steel engineered the total process. The mill workers at that time were local high school students, critical war workers, and women. So many people came from the community to work in the mills during the war. Plants like Weirton Steel were doing their part to win the war.
Surely my grandfathers encountered steel made from Weirton Steel in the Army overseas. Along with the shells from the plant, steel for tanks, trucks and ships were made from Weirton Steel. Products made from brass, copper, silver chloride and magnesium, 30 to 50 caliber ammunition were also made at the mill. Most important, more than 5,000 men from Weirton Steel’s workforce went to fight during the war. More than 115 gave the supreme sacrifice to our country.
The days of the booming mill are over in Weirton. The skies are clear, when they were once full of smoke. While on Veterans Day we honor those who serve, I also want to say thank you to the mill workers who “fought the battle of production” to supply all the service men and women overseas who fought for our freedoms. They made the supplies and equipment necessary to keep our servicemen safe and that’s not a small thing.
As that part of our area comes to a close, we hope to welcome new opportunities of growth to our region. And just as the mills filled the land of the Ohio Valley, we hope new things will fill their place, too. Even as those old behemoths are torn down, the history of what the company did for our families, nation, and our veterans will live on in the freedoms we all share. Let us never take for granted the sacrifices of our Veterans or those who support them here at home. Thank you is not enough.