My mother and aunts Jennie Pilato and Aunt Mary LoSchiavo tell me that he was a wonderful family man. He was drafted into the U. S. Army. The day he left, he couldn't stop holding and looking at me. I was six months old. My sister, Grace, was born after he was shipped overseas.

He was MIA on February 23, 1944, at Carroceto, Italy, near Anzio, captured by Germans. He was a POW for 14 months in Germany.

For 54 years we did not the full story of how he was killed. The War Department informed my mother that he was killed probably by "friendly" fire by air raid. That's all.

Thanks to AWON, who gave me Government addresses to write for his records, I found out the story. According to the German mayor of the small farming town, Quickborn, on Friday, April 13, 1945, the German soldiers guarded the 100 POWs flanked on their sides, marching to another part of Germany as they were retreating. Suddenly, at 1:20 p.m., from the east, 3 - 5 British planes came and strafed for 15 - 20 minutes. When it was over, there were 9 American POWs, 3 British POWs and 2 German soldiers dead. There were machine gun-riddled tanks and dead horses all over.

He saw the American POWs gather their dead comrades (one was my father) and bury them in Quickborn. The American POWs made wooden crosses and wrapped the fallen POWs in Army mattresses. For a long time, according to the records, he was Unknown "X". They finally identified the three unknown soldiers by their teeth. He was buried three times.

He wrote in his letters to my mother that he knew he was coming home. I am very proud to be his daughter and how I wish I would have known him. I know from what my mother and aunts tell me that he would have been a wonderful father.