Schedule for Ely soldier coming home
FRIDAY, OCT. 9
4-5 p.m. Police-led Procession down Sheridan Street
5-7 p.m. Visitation at Kerntz Funeral Home
SATURDAY, OCT. 10
10:30 a.m. Procession from Kerntz Funeral Home to Ely Cemetery
11 a.m. Jet Flyover and Military Honors Service
1-4 p.m. Reception and Lunch at Veterans on the Lake near Winton about James Mondati.
by Harmony Fisher
Sgt. James C. Mondati of the United States Army Air Forces will finally arrive back in Ely this week, over eight decades after he enlisted in WWII and never returned home.
Mondati will be laid to rest in the Ely Cemetery on Saturday, Oct. 10 near his parents’ graves.
“My whole family is excited about it,” said Sgt. Mondati’s nephew, Rico Mondati. “He’s coming home.”
Sgt. Mondati was born in 1920 and died in the Philippines at Camp Cabanatuan following the infamous Bataan Death March in 1942.
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) identified Mondati’s remains after requesting DNA samples from family members.
Rico Mondati said he has looked forward to his uncle’s homecoming since the Army Casualty and Mortuary Affairs Operations Division contacted him in 2018.
Rico Mondati’s wife, Cathy Mondati, described their surprise when they learned Sgt. Mondati had been identified by military officials.
“We were so flabbergasted,” Cathy Mondati said. “It was just, wow. You sit back and don’t know what to do.”
“Never in our lives did we ever, ever, ever think this would happen,” Cathy Mondati said. “You hear of it and you say, yeah right.”
James Mondati voluntarily enlisted in the service after graduating from Ely High School, as he believed most young American men would eventually end up deployed.
“He enlisted early to climb the ladder, to be a sergeant so he wouldn’t have to be in the trenches,” Rico Mondati said. “He wanted to earn some skill as far as either working in an office or mechanical skills. At the tail end, he really wanted to be a pilot.”
James Mondati regularly sent money home to his family, along with letters he wrote on a typewriter while stationed in California. Military letters could sometimes take up to six months to arrive at their intended destination, Cathy Mondati said.
Rico Mondati said his father never talked much about James Mondati. When Rico Mondati began reading books about the Bataan Death March later on in life, he realized why his father didn’t tell him about it while he was young.
“I don’t think he wanted me to know the suffering that was done,” Rico Mondati said.
“It was such a hard thing. He was so young and he never came home,” Cathy Mondati said.
Rico Mondati searched through James Mondati’s letters for information on his life, discovering that Sgt. Mondati had “a little bit of an Italian temper.”
In writing, James Mondati vehemently defended his membership in the military, even to those who had questioned why he enlisted so early.
“He was feisty,” Cathy Mondati said.
Rico Mondati said he also realized James Mondati was a loving son by reading his letters.
James Mondati enjoyed hunting and fishing. Despite searching through yearbooks and records, Rico Mondati hasn’t determined whether James Mondati participated in school sports or other activities.
Sgt. Mondati’s family did not learn of his passing until the US Military Forces liberated prisoner of war camps in the Philippines in 1945.
The Mondati family received James Mondati’s military storage trunk after the war, which Rico Mondati later found in a back corner of his uncle John Mondati’s closet after John Mondati passed away.
The family hopes to pass it along through the generations to other Mondatis as an heirloom.
James Mondati’s name is read in remembrance at Memorial Day and Fourth of July ceremonies every year. He was one of the only Ely service members to never come home, Cathy Mondati said.
Cathy Mondati said Sgt. Mondati’s upcoming return proves true the military adage that “nobody is left behind.”
“I don’t think anybody can fathom what this means to Ely,” Cathy Mondati said.
“Everybody is so amazed this is happening,” Cathy Mondati said. “We’re not the type of people to look to be in the center of attention, so this has been really weird to us. But the community has been amazing.”
Family members will arrive from as far as California, Nevada and southern Wisconsin to celebrate the homecoming, along with “a lot of locals,” Cathy Mondati said.
A military procession will fill Ely’s streets in the late afternoon of Friday, Oct. 9, followed by a visitation service at Kerntz Funeral Home from 5-7 p.m.
Rico Mondati intends to read one of Sgt. Mondati’s letters as part of the eulogy.
“It’s going to be hard, emotionally hard. There’s going to be so much support,” Cathy Mondati said.
A full military ceremony will commence at 11 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 10 at the cemetery, including a fighter jet flyover by the Minnesota National Guard. A celebration of life will follow from 1 - 4 p.m. at Veterans on the Lake Resort.
Dinner will take place in the lobby area of the Grand Ely Lodge after the celebration of life.
Members of the public are encouraged to attend any event.
If any donations are received, Sgt. Mondati’s family plans to use the funds to install a memorial at Veterans on the Lake Resort with Sgt. Mondati’s name listed on it, such as a bench with a plaque.
