"I feel there are so many people who deserve the honor," Rizutto said.īill Jones, Honor Flight Long Island's president, likened the tours to giving the veterans a "big hug." But the trips were suspended after COVID-19 struck, from March 2020 to Aug. The Honor Flight Network, an Arlington, Virginia-based nonprofit formed in 2005, says it has arranged these trips for more than 240,000 veterans - including those from more recent wars or who were stricken with terminal ailments. Rizutto is the sole woman of the nine veterans who next Sunday will fly on Southwest Airlines out of Islip, see the World War II Memorial, the "Changing of the Guard" ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery, and the Iwo Jima memorial, and be welcomed back upon their return by The Long Island Bagpipe Band. "We were gung-ho and anxious it was a rough deal I can’t go into the details I don’t even like to remember them." Now, a whirlwind trip to D.C. She served one year in North Africa and another with front-line troops advancing from Naples to Trieste in Italy. "Life is tough we had injured all the time." Army nurse who turns 100 on Tuesday, offer plain, hard truths, without embellishment: "It was sad," she said. Like good shepherds for all whose futures they made possible, the veterans, including Eleanor Rizutto, of Franklin Square, a U.S. Credit: Plattduetsche Home Society, EHP Program Coordinator/Case Manager”/Cloe Southard "Life is tough we had injured all the time," she said. Tolve, 98, of Mastic Beach, an Army Air Corps corporal and squad leader, says with great economy: "I was then placed on a ship - and went into Normandy - we landed in the water and the Rangers cleared the way up the cliff and overtook the German’s huge cannons."Įleanor Rizutto, of Franklin Square, was a U.S.
HEROES IN WORLD WAR 2 HOW TO
"It was the best cup of coffee I ever had in the Army."Īfter learning how to identify and shoot down German planes and rockets, Vincent J. Remembering crossing the Rhine, he salutes the Salvation Army for handing out hot coffee and doughnuts. After landing in a pasture to evade German fighter planes, he writes not of the attacks, but of cleaning cow dung off their own plane. Words like bravery and gallantry don’t appear in these veterans' short written accounts, which flight organizers provided to Newsday: Some of the most consequential events are described in the simplest of ways.Ĭritelli simply notes that one of his letters of commendation was for the Battle of the Bulge. The future was unknown and scary, and I knew I’d miss my family tremendously." "I was scared and depressed in those early days. Army training after he was drafted.īecoming an airplane-engine mechanic and a Tec 3 sergeant required backbone. "Chow was good except they didn’t know how to cook it," wrote Dominick Critelli, 100, of Floral Park, of his initial U.S. There were a few mishaps along the way, they recalled some dangerous, some humorous, which leavens what little they revealed about war's horrors, including D-Day.
With candor, humor, and without sugarcoating, nine World War II veterans recounted a few wartime experiences before their honorary flight next Sunday from Long Island to the nation’s capital.
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