Stories From World War II Drew Veterans’ Day Observations To A Close At St Rose School

By Shannon Hicks

There is a scene in the 1990 film Memphis Belle where a member of the ten-man crew of the movie’s title plane watches in horror as a German plane he has just shot at and hit has, on its way down, sliced through another B-17 in the group flying with Belle. The plane splits in half and the body of one soldier is seen hurtling through the air. A parachute never opens.

One of the stories told by Technical Sergeant Chuck Theriault, a veteran of World War II who visited St Rose School last week, sounded similar. Yet while the film story was based on events, and probably embellished for Hollywood, the stories told by Lieutenant Colonel Jim Fontana (9th USAF), Lieutenant Colonel Walter Hushak (7th USAF), Technical Sergeant Tony Santoro (14th USAF) and Mr Theriault (8th USAF) on November 13 were all true. The men were guest speakers Friday morning, continuing the school’s observation of Veterans’ Day earlier in the week.

“We’re old men and we’re going to be talking about the war,” Mr Hushak warned St Rose history teacher Joe DeMaida, who had organized the event. “If you don’t give us a time limit, we’re liable to go one for hours,” Mr Hushak continued with a laugh.

The four Connecticut residents entered the auditorium of the church’s great hall to the strains of “God Bless America” and the sight of nearly 200 students holding American flags. As they filed in toward a podium in the front of the room, the four men turned and faced their audience while a slide show played on a screen above their heads.

Each man was given time at the podium Friday morning. There was also a video presentation after the first two speakers, and the floor was opened to questions from the students after the four men spoke.

Mr Fontana, sporting a blue Army Air Force uniform, was the pilot of a B-26 Marauder during the war. He graduated from high school in 1942, headed to California to begin his college studies, and then two weeks later learned he was about to be drafted.

“I went to California to study aeronautic engineering, so I decided to become a pilot,” he said, then admitted he got sick after his first nine-flight training cycle.

“Flying was easy, however,” he told the students. “It was learning Morse code — 12 words a minute by eye and 19 by ear — that was hard.”

Mr Fontana was told early on that he, and most others he was training with, would not become a fighter pilot. The Army needed bomber pilots. His choice came, he said, when it was time to decide which plane to specialize in.

“The Marauders were nicknamed ‘The Widowmaker,’ they were so difficult to fly,” he told the students. “They were also referred to as ‘One A Day in Tampa Bay’ because we were training in Florida and so many guys went right off the peninsula and into the water. I chose that one.”

Chuck Theriault said he read about planes when he was 12 or 13, and fell in love with them. He dropped out of high school midway through his junior year, he said, and joined the Army on January 19, 1942.

He became a technical sergeant engineer on a B-17, “to me, the greatest airplane put up into the sky,” he said. “I could fly it, land it, taxi it. I could take it apart and put it together again. I could do anything that plane was meant to do.”

Mr Theriault flew on 30 missions, including one where he and his crew survived an attack by German suicide pilots.

“That attack took out two planes on either side of us,” he said. “We watched one boy come down right next to our number three engine. He didn’t have his parachute on. He was on his way to his death.”

The biggest concern on most missions was flak, the ground-based anti-aircraft guns that fired explosive shells into the air and were very effective at cutting down planes.

“I have seen B-17s completely disappear,” Mr Theriault said. “No wing tips, no wheels, nothing. It’s like throwing a firecracker. It’s just gone.

“And each time that happened it meant ten young men were just that: gone,” he said.

The war effort, Mr Theriault said, is not glamorous. It isn’t fun and dancing, and beautiful women the way the movies and television programs portray.

“The war was not fun. It was not glorious. There was nothing good about it,” he said, before sharing another story.

“One night 12 men were killed out of my barracks. [The rest of us] found we could not stay in our bunks that night. The mattresses, the belongings, everything of the dead men had already been stripped from the building.

“It was raining that night, but it didn’t matter,” Mr Theriault continued. “We put on our ponchos and walked. And then we talked about anything. Anything so that we didn’t think about those boys. Missions usually started at 3 am, but we didn’t care. We did not want to be in those barracks that night.”

Mr Hushak’s presentation included a six-minute video that showed restored B-17s and B-24s, including the ones that visit Oxford Airport each year.

“Listen to those engines,” he said during the video. “To those of us who were in the service, those engines are like a warm blanket. It’s like music to our ears.”

Mr Hushak also had with him a large illustration of a plane, which he used to point out the plane’s sections and where each crew member was positioned. He showed an air mask, and he also held up a life vest, which he referred to as “a Mae West. I’ll leave it up to your teachers to explain why we called them that.”

While the other three men served as pilots during the war, Tony Santoro was in Army Air Force’s engineering division. During his time speaking, he outlined the ten positions of the men who flew on a plane, and “the 15 guys on the ground who kept them up there,” he said. “I repaired the planes when they came back home with holes in them. I repaired them and sent them out for another day.”

Less than a week earlier, Mr Santoro was been part of the most recent group to fly to Washington, D.C., with American Warriors, the Connecticut-based nonprofit dedicated to bringing WWII veterans to their memorial in the nation’s capitol. He flew, with 99 other veterans, from Hartford to Washington and spent a day visiting the WWII monument, as well as Korean, Vietnam, Air Force and other monuments.

“These people were fabulous,” Mr Santoro said of American Warriors, who sent guardians with the veterans and made sure everyone was taken care of all day. “I have waited years for this.”

(Eighth grade students were posted at the doors of St Rose following each Mass last weekend, receiving donations from church members that were earmarked for American Warriors. According to Joe DeMaida, the students collected more than $2,100 from the parish on November 14–15.)

Mr Santoro also reflected on what he had seen during the war, asking the children of St Rose to remember to show their respect to veterans of all ages.

“My service with the country has been very rewarding,” he said. “I saw some good things, but we also lost too many good men. The memorial for Iwo Jima, with that flag being raised, really shows what so many men went through.

“When you see an American flag, when you see a veteran, go up to him and shake his hand. The guys we left behind, you owe them something. You own them that.”

Prior to the presentation for the students, the four men had the opportunity to look through the collection of WWII items belonging to St Rose School Nurse Bonnie Nezvesky. One of five girls in her family, Ms Nezvesky’s father earned a Distinguished Flying Cross when he fought in the war. She began studying World War II years ago, and has amassed a collection of books, posters, insignia, uniform items and photos directly related to her father as well as the troops and battles of the war.

“This was my passion,” she said. “My sisters didn’t follow it like I still do.”

Friday morning Ms Nezvesky carefully laid out the items on tables, and invited the four guests to look through them. The men were definitely interested in the collection, and the five adults spent time comparing stories before the students arrived from Mass.

“When I read some of these books I was amazed,” Ms Nezvesky said. “It just made my passion grow,” she added, tearing up.