The Legion Post 1344 sign hangs near Champy’s bar. Tharrel “TK” Kast, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel, sent the OBSERVER an email about it on Wednesday – which would have been Acquavia’s 108th birthday.

“I honestly wouldn’t normally care if a chicken joint buys and displays any veteran service organization’s sign. I myself am a member of many (veterans organizations),” Ret. Lt. Col. Kast wrote. “But the sign has more than a post number and city, as you can see in the attached photo. It has Pvt. Frank Acquavia’s name on it.”

Kast referenced a 2021 OBSERVER article reporting the retrieval of Acquavia’s identification “dog tags” in the Philippines. He said the sign is not a relic on the same level as the tags, “but it does bother me that this item was somehow sold and (ended) up in Smyrna, TN when some folks long ago thought his story was worthy of naming their American Legion post after him. We have reached out to the American Legion Department of New York, but it’s been months and no one from Dunkirk has shown any interest in the sign.”

Kast said he and other veterans from the Smyrna area planned to gather at Champy’s Wednesday night to toast Acquavia’s 108th birthday. “We feel it’s the least we could do,” he said.

Above is Acquavia himself.

Acquavia, whose body was never recovered, died May 10, 1942, as a prisoner of Japan. He had been serving with the 59th Coast Artillery Regiment, according to the book “No One Forgets,” which was written by George Burns III and Richard Titus. Acquavia lived at 53 E. Second St., and was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Rocco Acquavia.

He was captured in Corregidor during the opening days of the war in the Pacific. “The Japanese herded some Americans down to a seaplane landing area,” the book noted. “Frank went to retrieve or find food that was hidden at their battery. A Japanese guard spotted him and opened fire with a machine gun, killing him instantly. This was witnessed by Jim Rossoto of Fredonia.”

The Legion Post 1344 in Dunkirk that was named after Acquavia on Lake Shore Drive West closed in August 2013 due to declining membership.