The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Local war hero returns home
Remains of 1st Lt. Steve Nagy, shot down during World War II, return to county
Seventy-seven years and 24 days to the day First Lt. Steve “Pete” Nagy, of the U.S. Army Air Corps, gave his life for his country during a bombing mission over Germany, his remains returned to Lorain County.
A graduate of Keystone High’s class of 1938, the then 23-year-old Nagy was piloting a B-17G Flying Fortress on a bombing mission over Merseburg, Germany, when it was struck by German anti-aircraft fire and crashed.
The date was Aug. 24, 1944.
In total, there were nine aboard the plane. Four others along with Nagy were killed. The four survivors were taken away to a German prisoner of war camp.
Now all those years later, Nagy’s remains are back in Lorain.
They arrived at Hopkins International Airport in Cleveland the afternoon of Sept. 17 and were transported by limo to GluvnaShimo-Hromoda Funeral, where they will remain until burial Sept. 24 at Elmwood Cemetery, 640 North Ridge Road.
None of Nagy’s immediate family is around, but Rich Nagy, 75, the nephew of Nagy, has taken on the role of family spokesperson.
“It’s like a miracle,” Rich Nagy said of the return of his family member’s remains. “When I got the call, I was in shock because I thought it would never happen.
“I’ve got a letter here from the Army requesting DNA from me and everything else. And that was back in 2017. They notified me then that the military never give up.”
The Army looks to identify people and bring them home to bring closure for them, Rich Nagy said, as he sat in the office of his Lorain ranch home, which had pictures of his late uncle on the walls.
The remains
A thick blue blinder that contains Nagy’s military life and death sits on a nearby desk of his nephew.
It was given to the family by military officials in a visit to the home when they went there in 2019 to tell them they’d identified Nagy’s remains.
Military representatives presented a shadowbox ensconced in rich wood with all the late airmen’s medals, to the family as well.
The remains were identified in 2019.
The original date for the burial was set for Mother’s Day 2020, but the novel coronavirus pandemic caused it to be postponed.
The return of Nagy’s remains is a study in dignity for the deceased and science.
Despite the enormity of the tragedy, the family chose to put it behind them, apparently.
Rich Nagy, who served a stint in the U.S. Marines from 1966-67, said he remembers little talk about his late uncle when he was growing up.
His grandmother died when he was very young and his grandfather not long after.
“I guess they all just assumed that he had burned up in the plane crash,” Rich Nagy said matter-of-factly.
He said his father, Mike, who was Steve Nagy’s older brother, never spoke of his late younger brother, thus leaving the nephew with slight knowledge of his uncle.
“They didn’t do that back then,” Rich Nagy said. “Families kept a lot to themselves.
“It’s not like today, when everything is out there.”
Military officials contacted Rich Nagy as far back as 2017 and requested DNA samples from him and another family member to help identify remains recovered in Germany from World War II.
That’s where the science comes in.
Advances in DNA technology have allowed for previously unidentifiable remains to receive a name, a story, a life and a proper burial.
Upbringing
Nagy was an active youngster growing up.
According to his Clearview High School yearbook of 1938, he played football, ran track, was a member of the glee club, library club and participated in dramatics and publications.
Nagy grew up on a family farm in a house on Dutton Road that still stands today.
He was the second oldest of four boys and had an older sister, Margarett.
It was Margarett, according to Richard Nagy, who sent out letters of inquiry to the U.S. Army on occasion in search of information about her missing family member.
About a year after Nagy’s plane went missing his mother, Lidia, purchased a plot in Elmwood Cemetery and put a headstone there.
The plot is still there, Richard Nagy said.
“I still have the receipt for that,” he said.
On Sept. 24, Nagy will be buried in an area for veterans, Rich Nagy said. The original monument put there by Lidia Nagy will remain.
The phone at Nagy’s home has been ringing off the hook.
The Army put out a news release about the return of the remains of a World War II pilot shot down over Germany and never recovered.
The reporters have tracked him down. They want a story. And Rich Nagy said it’s tiring talking to the media.
But, he said he wants his uncle and his uncle’s sacrifice on that August day in 1944 to get its just due.
“If he didn’t do it, we could be a whole different world,” Rich Nagy said. “We might not be the United States of America, we could have been under the control of Nazi, Germany.”