In January 1945, shortly following the end of the six-week Battle of the Bulge - the bloodiest single battle fought in WWII, resulting in 19,000 Americans killed and another 70,000 wounded or captured - Brooklyn-born brothers Joseph (photo left) and Salvatore Lombino, against all odds, miraculously met on that sacred field in Ardennes, Belgium. Their extraordinary reunion is captured in this photo.
The brothers served in two separate units. Joe, the older, was a sergeant in the 1056th Engineer Port and Construction Repair Group (PC&R), part of the 3rd Army, which operated from the rear to restore vital infrastructure crucial for barge traffic to Antwerp.
Sal (my dad) served in A Battery 789th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Battalion, part of the 1st Army, providing critical air defense. As for many millions of young servicemen, appropriately acclaimed as our nation's "Greatest Generation," they lived through the horror of battle before reaching their 21st birthdays.
As I learned later, Italian-Americans were the largest percentage of Americans who served in the war, with estimates of 1.2 million to 1.5 million. Another source of pride for our family.
Sometime after the war, in doing some research regarding my dad's combat service, we learned of another Salvatore Lombino, who changed his name to Evan Hunter and also served during WWII. That Salvatore, my dad's distant cousin, was a prolific and acclaimed author who wrote more than 50 novels including the acclaimed "Blackboard Jungle" and the 87th Precinct series. Dad took great pride that another Italian-American "who made it big" shared his name.
Upon discharge, these first-generation Italian-American boys returned home and married their respective sweethearts who lived near one another in their beloved Brooklyn neighborhood. Joe married Carmela (Millie) Bilello, and Sal married Stephanie (Faye) Maniscalco. Joe and Millie had three children, Sal and Faye four.
The brothers and their growing families soon joined the mighty migration east to Long Island, N.Y., moving to Wantagh and hitching their future to the Island's heyday of home building in the '50s and '60s, both laboring as carpenters in the flourishing hardwood flooring business.
In 1985, Joe and Sal, devoted brothers in arms and blood to the end, passed away one month apart. I wish I knew more about their "Honest and Faithful Service to their Country."
