Happy Veterans Day to all of the brave men and women who fought for our country.
(A photograph of returning veterans from the neighborhood hangs at the Hill-Top Social Club)
Veterans Day is a holiday that resonates in Hilltop, an Italian-American neighborhood of Greensburg that shipped out 87 sons and daughters during World War II.
One of every 10 Americans -- 16 million men and women -- was in uniform between 1941 and 1945, according to Department of Defense statistics
From cities to towns, farms to tight-knit communities, all rallied for the cause.
One was Hilltop, roughly 16 streets sandwiched between Vine Street on the north and Bierer Street on the south. There were 181 households in the neighborhood then; nearly half were Italian-American.
Eighty-four of Hilltop's sons -- and two daughters -- went to war. Three of them died.
John DePaul of Jeannette, a retired Pittsburgh marketing and public relations executive, and local historian who has studied and written about his old neighborhood, said he could not "help but think that Hilltop, because of the size of the families, gave more men to the war than just about any section of the city."
After examining the data, DePaul concluded that 14 percent of Hilltop's World War II population was in uniform. The number was even higher in the Italian-American population -- 21 percent. "That 21 percent figure is well above the national average -- in fact, 84 percent higher," DePaul said.
Among them were both of his older brothers, Ozzie and Mario DePaul, who grew up in a house on Steck Street and became soldiers in World War II.
Sending away their sons
Frank and Concetta Salvatore of 413 Margaret St. had seven sons, five of them old enough to serve in the war.
James, the oldest, spent the war years stateside; Anthony shipped off to the Pacific for the fighting at Guadalcanal; Thomas fought in the Battle of the Bulge; Frank Jr. saw action on a PT boat; and Richard was a Navy swabbie.
"My dad hated the Germans and the Japanese," recalled Lou Salvatore, who, born in 1932, was too young to serve in the war. "He called them "brutto bastards - ugly bastards."
Salvatore's mother was "always a little sad" during those years. The anxiety of having five sons in the service "took a toll" on her, he said.
Knowing that Germany and Japan had to be defeated, Childers said, was little comfort to wives and girlfriends, moms and dads, sisters and brothers who had sent their loved ones to battle zones, according to University of Pennsylvania World War II historian Thomas Childers
Looked upon suspiciously
"The war was a strain on all the mothers in the neighborhood," said Tony Testa, who was 18 in 1943 when he was drafted. "I'm sure a day didn't go by that they didn't worry about it."
Testa, who lives on Truby Street, three doors from his childhood home, said being drafted "made me wonder what I was getting into." His mother, Mary Ann, who was born in Italy and spoke little English, wept when she was told the news.
Testa, 86, doesn't talk much about his service years. An infantryman, he was part of the invasion of southern France in August 1944.
He recalls the day he left Hilltop for the Army. He and a neighbor, Frank DeFloria, drove to the Greensburg rail station, where a troop train was waiting.
"The fact is that the people who migrated from Italy to the United States between 1900 and 1925 fell in love with this country," said DePaul, whose mother and father were born in Italy.
For all of their patriotism, many Italian-Americans began the war under a cloud, a result of Italy's early alliance with Nazi Germany. In the earliest days of the war, scores of Americans of Italian descent were jailed on the flimsiest of charges, a 2001 congressional report found.
DePaul remembers begging his parents not to speak Italian on the bus on their way downtown. "I didn't like the glances" the family got from the other passengers, he explained.
Like the old country
Like many 1940s neighborhoods, Hilltop was a world unto itself. It had DeBone's Market on Steck Street, Hilltop Pharmacy on Tremont Avenue, Angelo's barbershop on Tremont, Felice's bar and restaurant at Highland and Bierer, and Zappone's auto repair shop on Vine Street.
"Hilltop was alive with the sights, sounds and aromas of the old country," DePaul said. He recalled the scent of tomato sauce and meatballs, seasoned with garlic and fresh herbs, wafting from homes on Sundays. The aroma of bread, baked in outdoor ovens, was "sensational," he said.
Many families planted backyard vegetable gardens, the neighborhood had a World War II victory garden on land adjacent to 8th Ward School.
Hilltop produced some war heroes as well.
The most renowned was Frank L. "Hank" Spino of 408 Wood St. At 23, he became a B-17 bomber pilot. A slender 123 pounds, Spino was on his way to the East Coast from Salina, Kansas, when he flew his Flying Fortress over Greensburg, managing, as he said, to "buzz the old Hilltop neighborhood."
Angelo Rose, who grew up at 410 White St., remembered "everybody was at the window" at her school when Spino brought his plane in fast and low.
In an unpublished oral history for St. Vincent College, Spino, now living in Florida, said "people still ... call it 'the day the chimneys shook.'"
In 1943, Spino and his crew were shot down over Germany. He spent the remainder of the war in a POW camp.
Anthony "Tutta" Reno of Highland Avenue was part of an amphibious combat engineering team that waded ashore on Utah Beach hours before the main Normandy landing of June 6, 1944.
Three Hilltop men died in service to their country, according to the 1946 publication, the Service Album for Greater Greensburg
Tony Deverse of 519 Catherine St. was a tailgunner in the 22nd Bomber Squadron, 341st Bomber Group, when his plane was lost in March 1944 somewhere in the Pacific.
Lt. Jack Reamer of Highland Avenue died on Dec. 18, 1945, when his plane crashed. He is memorialized at the Manila American Cemetery in the Philippines, according to the World War II National Memorial Registry.
Julian Poli of 436 Steck St. was injured in a preflight training accident. Hospitalized before he was discharged from the service in June 1943, he died as a civilian 18 months later.
Greensburg veterans – we thank you for your service.
Source: http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/s_766737.html#ixzz1dQ0ekaqH
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