Quote History Originally Posted By SCRooster:
How did he end-up with that gig? Was he Nickle O Nasty or 4/325th or ... wasn't 1/508th flying colors there at the time? The only reason I ask is because that job almost always went to a Vet from one of our Airborne Regiments although I think I do remember one guy getting the job straight out of retirement from the SF unit up at Bad Toelz. I can't remember which SF battalion was in Bad Toelz at the ... 11th maybe, I think.
He must have been one heckuva man. Just lost my Dad this past December ... we miss them every day I think.
ETA: The more I think about it the more I think it may have been 10th Group but, I'm just not sure. 10th may have been reserve in Texas that year.
View Quote
we (the family) were stationed in Verona when SETAF HQ was there. Dad set up the the "Target Acquisition Team" with the Italian Folgore for the Corporal missiles in SEATAF (543rd & 570th Missile Battalions). Dad kept in touch with a lot of the Army retirees from his days there & GS folks who moved to Vicenza.
He was a living legend in the post-WW2 through post-Vietnam army. Private (1940) to colonel (1967). 3 awards of the CIB. Wrote the qualifications for the senior & master parachutist badges. Was in every airborne division post WW2 (11th, 82nd, & 101st) - chief of staff of the 101st in RVN. 33 years.
After my mom died Dad stayed with us at Toelz but moved too Verona, then Vicenza. His second wife was Italian (US citizen) and he volunteered al lot on post (ACS, retiree services).
Just before Desert Storm, he was elected commander of the VFW post, which was kind of dying. During and after the Gulf War he really rejuvenated it. Made it the top post in Europe.
About a year before he died he moved back to Italy (his wife inherited a house in Piedmonte) but he was 89. Passed at 90 just after the French awarded him the Legion of Honor.
This was taken at the Florance American Military Cemetery