Look Back: Remembering eight local servicemen killed at Pearl Harbor

Petty Officer Second Class Albert Joseph Konnick was scheduled to be discharged from the U.S. Navy on Dec. 14, 1941, after spending six years in the service.

Konnick, trained as a carpenter, was among eight local servicemen killed during Japan’s surprise attack on the American naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on Dec. 7, 1941.

News of Konnick’s death along with the five other servicemen was announced weeks after the attack in the Times Leader Evening News on Dec. 22, 1941.

Konnick briefly served with his older brother, Andrew Konnick, board the USS Arizona until the elder brother was discharged in August 1941.

According to Together We Served website, the two brothers were standouts on the ship’s baseball team named Wildcats that won games against other ships teams, including a 5-1 win against the USS Colorado in spring 1941.

While serving on the Arizona, the younger Konnick built a one-sixteenth inch scale of the Arizona battleship in his free time, which was on display in his parents home on Auburn Street, Wilkes-Barre.

“Occupying a conspicuous place in the living room of the family home is a model of the ship on which the young seaman had been serving for the past six years. The ship, made up of 2,500 pieces and complete in every details, is a work of art which might best be appreciated from the fact that the young Konnick spent most of his spare time for more than a year in building the model ship now enclosed in a glass case at least three feet in length,” the Times Leader Evening News reported Dec. 22, 1941.

According to reports, four other local servicemen killed on the USS Arizona were Brinley Varchol, 25, of Hanover Township, Keith Jeffries, 23, of Newport Township, John Peter Rutkowski, 23, of Nanticoke, John Edward Burns, 25, of Wilkes-Barre, and John Joseph Petyak, 21, of Wilkes-Barre.

Joseph J. Resuskey, 41, of Jenkins Township, and Edward F. Slapikas, 26, of Newport Township, were also killed during the attack on the Naval base.

“Keith (Pete) Jeffries, 23, athlete of Newport Township, was killed in the sneak raid made by the Japanese on Pearl Harbor Dec. 7. The young man had been a member of the U.S. Navy for the past two years and was attached to the Pacific fleet at Hawaii,” the newspaper reported.

In September 2017, Slapikas’ remains were identified by DNA testing and returned home for burial in St. Mary’s Cemetery, Wanamie, in June 2018. Slapikas was stationed on the USS Oklahoma as a seaman first class.