Republican and Herald from Pottsville, Pennsylvania • C4

PRREPUBLICANPAGES C04 I 080907 16:08 I CAMPOMIZZI CYAN MAGENTA BLACK C4 CONNECTIONS SUNDAY, AUGUST 12, 2007 REPUBLICAN HERALD NEWS-ITEM Minersville native pens story of former Soviet naval captain REPUBLICAN herald AUTHOR: Marion Boyle maintains a Web site: marion boyle.com this whole time, his main goal was to eventually escape to the West, seeing that there would never be freedom in Lithu-ania while SUBMITTED PHOTO The Pleskys family, with Jonas at the top, circa 1943. STORY, From Page CI a kind of half-door, and it was at this door that Eugenija remembers last seeing her father's face before he was transported to Siberia. It is possible that he could have pushed the children through this opening. Both Eugenija and Jonas did affirm that their father told them to run, and he charged his oldest son Jonas to take care of his siblings." When he was 15, Pleskys was expelled from school for "anti-Soviet activities." He was unsuccessful several times to enter institutions of higher education. He was considered very intelligent and his entrance exams were outstanding, but he was labeled "politically unreliable." He was eventually drafted into military service, and when a commanding officer saw that he was intellectually gifted, Pleskys was given the opportunity to train at the Leningrad Higher Naval Academy and worked his way up the ranks in the submarine service.

During Upon reaching the island and being greeted by Swedish military the 26-year-old Pleskys told the crew he was defecting and told them they should do the same. The ship and crew was released and returned to Lithuania, leaving Pleskys alone. Despite the encouragement of a KGB agent to return home, Pleskys decided to remain in Sweden. He was tried in absentia in the Soviet Union, with a death sentence placed on his head. Because of his knowledge of Soviet naval operation, Pleskys was assisted by the CIA, who hid him in Guatemala and other Central and South American countries for nine years.

He married while in Guatemala and had a daughter, Jennifer, and a son, Joshua. Eventually, Pleskys entered the United States, but was always concerned that he was still a marked man by the KGB. It was a life of constantly looking over his shoulder. "Because of his contributions (of technical information), the CIA helped him obtain a teaching job at the Seattle Naval War College," Boyle said. "Later, he studied and taught at Stanford University and worked at an important Los Angeles computer firm.

The CIA finally placed him with American President Company in Oakland as a systems management specialist." During the three years she knew Pleskys, O'Boyle was unaware of much of his life before they met. In fact, there are still things not known. Several trips to Lithuania and Latvia were part of Boyle's investigation into her friend's past. She was able to peruse more than 800 pages of KGB documents as part of her research into the book, along with being able to interview Pleskys' first daughter in Latvia. "Before Tom Clancy wrote his bestseller, 'The Hunt for Red Jonas spent two years in association with him.

Even Jonas' American friends were unaware of this," said Boyle. "No doubt the CIA permitted this association, since the Soviets occupied it. Captain defects On April 6, 1961, as captain of the Smolney a 300-foot self-propelled barge which was part of the Soviet Baltic Fleet, Pleskys set sail from its home port of Klaipeda, Lithuania, on a routine mission, which in this case was to dump 14 tons of chemical waste into the Baltic Sea. Just as in the film, the crew of the Smolney was unaware of any plan to defect, only in this case it was Pleskys who was solely involved. The ship made it to the Swedish island of Gotland, where the crew left the ship with Pleskys, still unaware of what was happening.

ja, who is a well-known actress in Lithuania, she noted the striking similarities between Connery's portrayal of Ramius and her brother mannerisms. There was even a similarity in appearance between Connery and Pleskys at middle age. Leaving his homeland was hard on Pleskys, who believed for some time that he would never be able to return. With the collapse of the Iron Curtain, the fall of communism and freedom for Lithuania, he was able to return in 1992, where he visited with Eugenija. It was his only trip home before his death.

Clancy's book would portray our own Navy and CIA in a favorable light. "Jonas was able to give Clancy an enormous amount of technical information on the Soviet subs, the details of his escape, as well as provide him with a prototype for his hero, Capt. Marko Ramius," she said. "Obviously Clancy's book was fictionalized and had the usual disclaimers. He was not able to include Jonas in any of the credits without endangering him." Similarities detected When "Red October" was seen by Pleskys' sister, Eugeni Ashland's Pioneer Tunnel experiences 2 personal losses astronaut Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, who visited the tunnel complex in the 1980s.

"When he was here, the elementary school kids were all up here to see him," said Ermert. "He was talking to the kids. He was real nice. There should be an annual day to celebrate his visit." When it came to local mining history Emert was the one to ask. He was one of those remarkable people who remembered so much about what things were like in the region during his life.

There is a flagpole in Higher-Ups Park for years, pretty much neglected in the trees near Spruce Street. In 2005, Ermert had an idea of dedicating the flagpole to the memory of the miners injured and killed at the former Bast Colliery The flagpole was placed in its current location four years after the park was created. Emert remembered the Bast mining operation that closed in August 1934 after a mine gas explosion that took the life of Patrick "Packy" Burke. "The flagpole has been there since 1934. It's been bare without a flag among all the trees.

I thought we should have a flagpole operating in the park, so we got it repaired and painted," said Ermert. "Then I thought it would be nice to have a little dedication." Ermert thought about the incidents at the colliery that killed Burke and disabled Gurney "Gyker" Buhl and decided to have the flagpole dedicated to them, along with all others who were killed or injured at the operation. He composed the plaque's inscription: "This flagpole was donated to Higher Up Park by Bast Colliery of the Philadelphia and Reading Coal and Iron Company in 1934. It is dedicated to the memory of Gurney 'Gyker' Buhl, born in 1909, totally disabled in a mine explosion in 1932, and died in 1995; to Patrick 'Packy' Burke, fireboss, killed in a mine fire-related gas explosion in 1934, after which Bast Colliery was permanently closed; and to all other victims of disasters at Bast Mine over the years." Ermert added, "That flagpole isn't just a piece of pipe. It was manufactured in the Potts-ville shops of the Reading.

They didn't do anything half-baked. They did it properly" Ermert said the Bast operation was large, with so much activity underground that it was like a city "It was located in Big Mine Run. There are no signs of it over there anymore. It was a big operation very complex and complicated. It's all gone now," Ermert said.

"It had 800 employees. There were four levels, accessed by a shaft to the surface, along with a tender's slope at a pitch." Ermert said the last external vestige of the mine was removed not long before the dedication. "They just tore the Bast headframe down a year or two ago, and I'm so sorry to see that because I think it was a majestic sight, to put it like that, on the skyline with the headframe for the shaft," said Ermert. He said when in operation, there were two large spoked wheels eight to 10 feet in diameter about 100 feet above the ground on the headframe that moved workers and materials up and down the vertical mine shaft that extended 1,000 feet underground. "They were counter-rotating, one up and one down, and at times the spokes appeared to stand still and then reversed direction," Ermert said.

"It always fascinated me to watch that." Ermert was a reporter's dream in that he knew his stuff and always had a quote for you about whatever you asked about. Many visitors to the tunnel complex maybe noticed a white-haired man sitting leisurely watching the world go by and never realized how important he was to the entire site. Whenever I visit Pioneer Tunnel, especially at this year's Pioneer Day, that empty red bench will remind me of "Mr. Pioneer Tunnel." (Usalis is chief of The News Item's Ashland bureau) TUNNEL, From Page CI believe the tunnel project involved a state grant of $30,000. Today if you apply for grant money it takes lawyers and engineers, an application with so many pages that you feel sorry for the tree that had to give up its life to keep bureaucrats in jobs, and enough hoops to jump through that would confuse even an Olympic gymnast.

Ermert said that back in 1962, the grant application was one sheet of paper, though it had to be filled out on both sides. How things have changed. At every Pioneer Day Ermert sat in his usual spot a bench in front of the main office for an hour or so. That was his usual daily ritual during the tourist season when he was feeling well. He would be dropped off in front of the office and sit on the red bench below the large blackboard.

He would sit there watching visitors walking around, and particularly enjoyed Pioneer Day since it brought in so many people. "There are more people coming every year," he told me in 2006. He didn't always sit alone. One of his friends would stop and chat with him. Last year, he was joined on the bench by his friend, Edward Kross, Ashland.

"They come from miles away, even from the moon," said Kross, referring to a visit by Apollo HR3 Shows Ready for a career in real estate? Then you need the right credentials on your resume. Show the world that you have what it takes to achieve, to innovate, to go further, and to do more. Perm State on your resume it shows. ENROLL NOW FOR FALL REAL ESTATE COURSES Real Estate Fundamentals (R EST 501 6A) Tuesdays and Thursdays September 4-27 6:15 p.m. 10:00 p.m.

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