PRINTER'S NO. 3532
THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA
HOUSE BILL
No.
2862
Session of
2022
INTRODUCED BY SANKEY, COX, SONNEY, SMITH, GILLEN, JAMES,
HENNESSEY, STAATS, HILL-EVANS, MILLARD, KINSEY, BERNSTINE,
CAUSER, RYAN, BURGOS, JOZWIAK AND CONKLIN, SEPTEMBER 29, 2022
REFERRED TO COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION, SEPTEMBER 29, 2022
AN ACT
Designating a bridge, identified as Bridge Key 8706, on that
portion of State Route 4021 over a tributary of the West
Branch of the Susquehanna River, Susquehanna Township,
Cambria County, as the Petty Officer Iral William Stoltz
Memorial Bridge.
The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
hereby enacts as follows:
Section 1. Petty Officer Iral William Stoltz Memorial Bridge.
(a) Findings.--The General Assembly finds and declares as
follows:
(1) Iral William Stoltz was born in West Carroll
Township on December 21, 1904, to John Robert and Mary Ann
(Gray) Stoltz and was the fifth of ten children.
(2) Petty Officer Stoltz enlisted in the United States
Navy prior to Pearl Harbor and became a petty officer first
class, fireman first class and served on the USS Kearny.
(3) The USS Kearny was commissioned in the late 1940s
and left for St. Thomas in the United States Virgin Islands
in February 1941. The USS Kearny patrolled off San Juan,
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Puerto Rico, then returned to Norfolk, Virginia.
(4) The USS Kearny was on patrol duty off Bermuda in
September 1941 and began escorting North Atlantic convoys.
(5) Shortly after midnight on October 17, 1941, the USS
Kearny was attacked by a wolfpack of German U-Boats while
escorting a convoy. A U-568 fired a spread of three
torpedoes, two of which missed the USS Kearny, but one struck
the destroyer on the starboard side just below the waterline.
(6) Petty Officer Stoltz was one of eleven sailors
killed in action that night, none of their bodies were
recovered.
(7) Petty Officer Stoltz was Cambria County's first
casualty of World War II and was posthumously awarded the
Purple Heart.
(8) Although his body was not recovered, Petty Officer
Stoltz is remembered with a gravestone in the historic St.
Joseph's Mission Church Cemetery in Carrolltown.
(b) Designation.--The bridge, identified as Bridge Key 8706,
located on State Route 4021 over a tributary of the West Branch
of the Susquehanna River, Susquehanna Township, Cambria County,
is designated the Petty Officer Iral William Stoltz Memorial
Bridge.
(c) Signs.--The Department of Transportation shall erect and
maintain appropriate signs displaying the name of the bridge to
traffic in both directions on the bridge.
Section 2. Effective date.
This act shall take effect in 60 days.
20220HB2862PN3532 - 2 -
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