Killed in Korean War in 1950, Nick Di Salvo finally laid to rest

Family, friends from near, far honor Marine

By Jim Carney

Beacon Journal staff writer

A Marine who died on a frozen hill in a historic battle in North Korea nearly 57 years ago was remembered Thursday by his family, his comrades in arms, younger Marines who never met him and the girl he left behind.

Marine Pfc. Domenico ``Nick'' S. Di Salvo, who would have turned 77 on Thursday, was buried instead at the Ohio Western Reserve National Cemetery in Rittman.

The Akron Marine who was listed among the missing in action on Dec. 2, 1950, during the battle of the Chosin Reservoir, was declared dead three years later.

His skeletal remains were not positively identified until earlier this year.

Pfc. Di Salvo waved goodbye to his fiancee, Carol Towsley, at the Akron train station one day in 1950 and never saw her again.

On Thursday, the 73-year-old mother of five, grandmother of 15 and great-grandmother of 15 sat in the Kucko-Anthony-Kertesz Funeral Home and remembered the young man she planned to marry.

``He was a super great guy,'' said Carol Towsley Holmes, a retired nurse's aide. ``He treated me like a little queen.''

When the news came that Nick was missing, ``it broke my heart,'' she said.

Her mother told her that time would heal the wounds, she said.

Her brother, Harry Towsley, had been killed in action in World War II, so the loss of her fiance was extremely difficult, she said.

She went on with her life, married, had a family and later divorced, but she never forgot Di Salvo.

``To have all these things taken away'' when he was killed in battle at such a young age, was hard to take, she said.

Sitting quietly in a chair at the funeral home, looking at the flag-draped casket that contained the remains of the boy she fell in love with so long ago, made her think, ``I wish he was here.''

Marine 1st Sgt. Richard A. Mathern of the inspector-instructor staff at Weapons Company, the Akron Marine Reserve unit, flew to Hawaii to bring Di Salvo's remains home.

In Honolulu, Mathern viewed and touched the remains of his fallen brother and on Wednesday, when Di Salvo's body arrived in Akron, he stood with members of Di Salvo's family at the funeral home on West Waterloo Road as the casket was opened.

According to protocol, the remains were wrapped in plastic, placed in a blanket, and covered with a Marine Dress Blues uniform.

Mathern pulled the uniform back a bit in the casket, put his hand on the blanket inside the funeral home and encouraged family members to touch Pfc. Di Salvo one more time.

``This is your brother,'' he said to the Marine's sisters on Wednesday.

(more online)