100-year-old World War II veteran honored

Voorhees, NJ

At a “Spirit of '45” celebration to recognize the military service of nine New Jersey World War II veterans and residents of the Voorhees Rehabilitation Center, the New Jersey director of employer outreach for Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve (ESGR) presented 100-year-old World War II veteran Tommy De Lucia with an ESGR challenge coin.
At 100, the Philadelphia native has witnessed remarkable changes, from the invention of Henry’s Ford’s Model T to the tooling of a car that can transform into an airplane.
In 1942, PFC De Lucia began his military service. He sailed on the Queen Mary (refitted for wartime service), and landed on Normandy on D-Day. He was assigned guard duties in field locations in Saint-Mere-Eglise, a village liberated after the D-Day invasion; served with Patton’s Army for a month; was involved with the Battle of the Bulge; and was set to go to Japan when the war ended.
After the rejoicing, the serious business of reintegration and personal recovery lay before De Lucia. At one point, still in his Army uniform because of the wartime shortage (it would take three months for the local tailor to fulfill his order of a suit), he ran into a former friend and ex-GI experiencing similar readjustment issues. They decided to join the Army and request overseas duties. The sergeant read their discharge papers and commented, “You ex-GIs have been through too much. Go take it easy and rest up.” That was not what they expected to hear. They resumed their mission of “trying to put the pieces, together.”
De Lucia made the fateful decision to seek help from a Veterans Administration counselor. Meanwhile, his former employer made arrangements to hire him back. A patriotic business owner who recognized the attributes of a hard-working employee, he paid him $1 an hour, despite the fact that "his top help was making 75 cents an hour.” The owner agreed to accommodate his requirement of visiting VA once a week for his counseling appointment.
After taking a break from his resumed career to go to California, marry his wife Esther and return to the East Coast, De Lucia stayed on with Comly & Gillam until he retired in 1977, where he was the company’s "jack of all trades" who set up the machinery for the machine operators, long before computer-controlled machinery revolutionized the industry.
Tommy and Esther remained loyal companions until Esther’s death of Alzheimer’s disease. He now resides at the Voorhees Care and Rehabilitation Center, where he occasionally trades war stories with the other veterans in residence.

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