COLUMBUS — The stretch of I-475/U.S. 23 between Hill Avenue and State Route 2 will be redubbed the Sgt. Alex Drabik Memorial Highway in honor of the late World War II hero under a bill signed into law Wednesday by Gov. Mike DeWine.
The designation will honor the first American to cross the Rhine River on March 7, 1945, leading 10 men under sniper and machine gun fire across the Ludendoff Bridge at Remagen. The soldiers crossed the Rhine before the Germans could destroy the bridge as they had others.
The strategic success at Remagen gave the Allies a way to cross the natural barrier and was later credited with shortening the war by six months.
“I wasn't trying to beat everybody. It just happened that way,” Mr. Drabik said in a Toledo Times story that ran the next day. “And, in the crossing, we didn't lose a man.”
A butcher back at home in Holland outside Toledo, he died in 1993 in a car crash while driving to Kansas for a military reunion.
He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross and was posthumously inducted into the Ohio Military Hall of Fame in 2018.
“Eisenhower said at the time that this probably saved tens of thousands of Ally or American lives,” said state Rep. Michael Sheehy (D., Oregon), who had introduced separate legislation to honor Mr. Drabik. “This was a punch through the heartland of Germany.”
Several members of the Drabik family attended the bill-signing ceremony, including Sandy Drabik-Collins, a cousin of Mr. Drabik and widow of the late Toledo Mayor D. Michael Collins.
Rita Drabik-Wilson, Mr. Drabik's daughter now living in Harpster, Wyandot County, said she hopes the sign on the highway will spark a moment of reflection with motorists.
“I hope they'll say this brave man shortened World War II, and at the same time he was humble and compassionate,” she said.
The stretch of highway was picked because it runs through the area of Lucas County where Mr. Drabik grew up.
“We're just so glad that he's going to be remembered forever,” said Jackie Konwinski, of Sylvania, a niece and family historian. “We have the Ohio historical marker, and Toledo did the bridge across Swan Creek. He's in the Ohio Military Hall of Fame.”
The renaming is one of a number of such designations in honor of military service included in the final version of House Bill 276. Introduced by Rep. Haraz Ghanbari (R., Perrysburg), a military veteran, it was originally written to honor Master Chief Special Warfare Operator (SEAL) Edward C. Byers, Jr.
The stretch of State Route 65, also known as River Road in Wood County, between State Route 64 and the county border, will be renamed for the now retired Master Chief Byers, who, as a hostage rescue force team member in 2012, helped to free an American hostage, Dr. Dilip Joseph, being held by the Taliban in Afghanistan.
He was awarded the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest military honor, by then President Barack Obama.
On its legislative journey, the bill picked up many other bridge and road renamings in honor of military veterans before reaching the governor's desk.
Those honoring northwest Ohioans include:
■ Sgt. Arthur A. Mora Jr., Memorial Highway: State Route 25 between U.S. Routes 20 and 23 in Wood County in honor of the Perrysburg man killed in Balad with two others during Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2005 when their Humvee was struck by indirect enemy fire. He is buried at historic Fort Meigs Union Cemetery.
■ Rear Admiral Alene Duerk Memorial Highway: State Route 108 through Henry County in honor of the first woman to attain the rank of Navy rear admiral. She first joined by the Navy Nurse Corps during World War II and rose through the ranks until she was promoted to rear admiral in 1972.
■ Lt. Col. Kevin Sonnenberg Memorial Highway: State Route 65 between County Road H and State Route 110 in Henry County, a route chosen because it runs near his family's McClure farm. The fighter pilot for the 180th Ohio National Guard of Toledo, commercial pilot, and farmer was killed when his F-16 fighter crashed at Balad Air Base in Iraq. He was awarded the Bronze Star, other Air Force medals, and the Ohio National Guard Distinguished Service Medal with Valor.
■ U.S. Army Sgt. Theodore Ward Memorial Highway: U.S. 6 between Frailey and Hahn roads in Erie County in honor of the Huron man killed in action in Vietnam in 1969. He was honored with the Purple Heart.
■ Catawba Island Township Veterans Memorial Highway: State Route 53 between Water Street and the Catawba Island line in Ottawa County with markers specifically honoring Pfc. William E. Galloway, a Port Clinton man killed in 1945 during World War II, and Spc. 4 James M. Davenport, killed in a rocket attack in Vietnam, as well as others that the township trustees later choose to honor on a rotating basis.
First Published March 4, 2020, 10:18 p.m.
