Section 27. 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, 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.