Sgt. Joseph G. Kusick honored in East Brady
Bryan Bly wants to make sure local residents do not forget the story of Sgt. Joseph G. Kusick.
A plaque honoring Kusick was unveiled at the East Brady light up night at Veterans Memorial Park on Saturday, Dec. 7.
When Bly gave a speech honoring Kusick during the event, he shared what Kusick and his fellow troops went through in the Vietnam War.
According to the Virtual Wall, a database that pulls information from the National Archives, Kusick died Nov. 9, 1967 when his helicopter went down in Laos, less than three months after his tour started. His body never was recovered.
Kusick was born in Bruin in February 1945 and graduated from Karns City High School in 1963.
Bly, who has spent time involved with the local American Legion, has given similar speeches on Kusick a handful of times. He researched Kusick’s story online and in the book “That Empty Feeling,” written by Terry Arentowicz in 2013 about the crew’s mission into Laos.
Kusick was part of a reconnaissance team operating in South Vietnam tasked with entering Laos to observe movements of North Vietnamese men and equipment down the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
“Since we were not fighting in Laos, some very interesting politics and diplomacy were in place. The recon teams were actually assigned to the CIA, outside of military channels. That meant the teams were ‘sanitized’ before deploying into neutral countries. No dog tags. No military uniforms. No insignia, no arm patches, rank, badges. They carried foreign weapons. A very dangerous position for our warriors if they were captured,” Bly said in his speech Saturday.
Bly went on to explain the result of the mission, that North Vietnamese troops who were guarding the trail engaged in a firefight, where Kusick’s plane was shot down in the process.
Kusick and his team’s leader, Master Sgt. Bruce Baxter, ended up wounded on the side of a hill. A helicopter with the call sign “Jolly 26” was not advised to go in to rescue them, but went in regardless and got them on board. When trying to leave, a North Vietnamese soldier shot at and destroyed the left engine of the helicopter, which then crashed into another hill.
“But the crew knew that two Americans were in danger of imminent capture and went in anyway,” Bly said.
In 2003, a forensics team was sent to Hill 891, the location of Kusick’s plane getting shot down, but no remains were found.
Bly said he did not have any real connection to Kusick. His older brothers were in school with Kusick’s younger brothers, Bill and Tom. He later found out Kusick was a cousin of one of his sisters-in-law.
Bly had started writing about Medal of Honor missions and flew helicopters in Operation Desert Storm. While researching, he discovered more information on Kusick’s operation.
In 2017, the Sgt. Joseph George Kusick VA Community Living Center was officially named after him on the VA Butler Healthcare campus.
Bly ended his speech with the same ending he’s given in the past, asking listeners to not forget what was sacrificed.
“What do we owe them? Simply an America they would be proud of. A mother who lost a son in World War II had this engraved on his stone in Italy: ‘To my son who gave the greatest gift of all, an unlived life.’ Please remember Joe Kusick’s unlived life.”
