Peter Cugasi

By Tim Chicirda, BucksLocalNews.com

When speaking with Peter Cugasi about World War II or the Korean War, stories about other military officials and what they did for this country are not far behind. This local veteran, who often submits stories to BucksLocalNews.com and other area publications, loves to inform people of what occurred during these times of battle, and more importantly, loves to make children, husbands, wives and grandchildren proud of the accomplishments of their families.

Now, it's Cugasi's turn for his story to be told. A veteran of both the second World War and the Korean War, the Levittown resident devotes an entire bedroom of his home to various plaques, photos and memorabilia.

Cugasi was a member of the United States Naval Armed Guard. This division of the Navy was in charge of delivering weapons, men or anything else needed to allied forces across the globe.
A gunner's mate on the SS Edward Paine, the SS Thomas Sim Lee and the SS Simon Willard, Cugasi visited such places as North Africa, Sicily, Bombay and Pakistan.

As a gunner's mate, Cugasi was in charge of firing the guns on the deck of the ship, if the need presented itself.

However, with these convey ships so low to the sea, fighting was far from the smart tactic.
"One torpedo and we were gone," said Cugasi.

This is why the Armed Guard duties were not to attack, but simply to deliver; however, if they were attacked by the enemy, they were forced to fight back. This is when Cugasi would man the guns and, according to Cugasi, it happened a number of times during his military career.
The Armed Guard would fight to defend their ship until the bitter end. Gunnery officers would seldom give the instructions to abandon ship.

"As long as guns were firing, we were to keep fighting," said Cugasi.

In fact, according to Cugasi, common protocol followed by the Armed Guard was to continue fighting, even as the ship began to go down. This was near certain death if a ship was in an area such as the waters off the coast of Russia in the winter.

With temperatures around 30 to 40 degrees below zero, soldiers in rowing lifeboats were "frozen to the oars" after only about 10 minutes, according to Cugasi.

Russia, coincidentally, was the site of Cugasi's greatest accomplishment in World War II. During the war, Russia lost over 20 million people and were in dire need of materials and bombs.
Cugasi and members of the Armed Guard were in charge of bringing tractors, tanks, locomotives, bombs and firearms to Murmansk, Russia in what was dubbed the "Murmansk Suicide Run."

This ominous title was given because about 300 ships were sent on this mission with only about 200 surviving.

"I was one of the lucky ones," said Cugasi.

In 1993, Yuli M. Vorontsov, the Soviet Union Ambassador recognized the 50-year anniversary of Russia's involvement in World War II, specifically the "Murmansk Suicide Run."

Two hundred and fifty American soldiers were honored, including Cugasi. They were given medals and toasted a shot of vodka.

"The Ambassador told me that if we hadn't made those deliveries, we would have lost the war," Cugasi said, reflecting on his great accomplishment.

Cugasi, who will turn 85 next month, still remembers being honorably discharged on Veterans Day and remembers thinking to himself: "If I could only live to see 65"

A Christmas story

Though this article promised to be purely about Cugasi, a tale told by the Levittowner was more than appropriate for this December 25 issue:
A good friend of Cugasi and fellow Murmansk suicide runner, Pete Burke, remembered a story of being frozen in the middle of the sea on Christmas day.
With no way to get a Christmas tree, Burke and company, who were on a different ship than Cugasi, put a mop in a bucket and hung hangers from it to create a Christmas tree.
Pete Burke is now deceased, but Cugasi says: "his story remains with me at Christmas time."