The Mineola Board of Trustees honored six World War II veterans who are longtime Mineola residents in ceremonies at their regular board meeting last Wednesday night, Dec. 7, to observe the 75th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
Three of the veterans, Thomas Scardino, Ray Vaz and Anthony Catalano were present to receive certificates from the board members commending their service in the U.S. Army during the war.
All three served in Gen. George Patton’s Third Army, Scardino and Vaz in the 90th Infantry Division, dubbed the “tough hombres,” and Catalano in the 70th Infantry Division, known as the “Trailblazers.” Scardino and Vaz are both D-Day veterans who earned Purple Hearts in combat.
“These men fought for our country, they fought for us. Men at the time 20 years old or less whose only wish was that they would live to see the next day,” said Mineola Mayor Scott Strauss at the outset of the observance. “They will long remember the horrors they’d rather forget. They will all tell you they don’t deserve this recognition, they will tell you the ones who do deserve it are the ones who never came home, who didn’t have their wish for another tomorrow fulfilled. But the truth is they do.”
Deputy Mayor Paul Pereira, a longtime history teacher at the Mineola High School and Middle School, summarized the war and recounted the terrible human toll the war took, with 292,000 U.S. service men and women killed in action and 672,000 wounded.
Referring to journalist Tom Brokaw’s book, The Greatest Generation, Pereira said, “He argued, and I agree and we all agree, that these men and women fought, not for fame and recognition, but because it was the right thing to do. It was because of them, because of you, that we are here today.”
Strauss also lauded the service of three World War II veterans who were unable to attend the ceremony, U.S. Navy veteran Walter Hobbs, paratrooper Edward Solosky and field medic Bernie Sherry.
Hobbs served as a Navy pilot flying search and rescue missions to save downed pilots in the Pacific theater during the war. Strauss also recounted Hobbs’s service to his community, serving both the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the American Legion and the Library Board with his wife, Joan, who served in the Navy WAVES during the war.
Sherry served in the 81st Infantry Division in the Philippines, including service in the battle for Peleliu. Solosky served in the 82nd Airborne Division and saw action in the Battle of the Bulge.
Trustee Paul Cusato recounted Scardino’s service, wounded twice in the weeks following his landing on Utah beach on D-Day. Scardino, commander of Adolph Block VFW Post 1305, received two Purple Hearts and a Bronze Star in recognition of his service.
Trustee Dennis Walsh spoke about Vaz, a member of VFW Post 1305 and a lifelong Mineola resident, who left high school in his junior year to enlist. Vaz was also wounded twice during his combat service, rejoining his company twice and participating in the liberation of the Buchenwald concentration camp.
Vaz and Scardino landed on Utah beach in successive waves on the morning of the D-Day landings, meeting—and becoming fast friends—60 years later in Mineola.
After receiving his commendation, Vaz jokingly referred to his close friend, who landed in the first wave, saying, “I just have one thing to say: this gentleman, who was in same division as I was, was supposed to protect me. He never did.”
“You’re getting on my nerves,” Scardino quipped in response.
Trustee George Durham recounted Catalano’s service in combat with Patton’s Third Army and during the occupation in Berlin. Catalano is a member of VFW Post 5253 in Albertson.
“These men have done things that movies are made of. They are real life heroes, then and now,” Strauss said at the conclusion of the ceremony. “We as a community will never forget your sacrifices, we will never forget your friendship we will never forget and always remember what you and your brothers and sisters in battle have done for our country and our families.”
Scardino, Vaz and Catalano were all visibly moved and all three had vivid recollections of when they heard about the Pearl Harbor attack.
Scardino said he had just come out of the Roxy Theater in Manhattan, overheard people talking about an attack and asked a passer-by what had happened.
“Where the hell is Pearl Harbor?” he asked when he was told of the sneak attack.
Catalano recalled hearing it on the radio at home and also recalled wondering where Hawaii was.
By the next day, all three noted, everyone knew where Pearl Harbor was.
“It haunts you the rest of your life,” Catalano said of his 82 consecutive days of combat in France and Germany. “A lot of friends didn’t come home with me.”
