Veterans Domenic Giarrusso, 96, of Cranston, and Benjamin Carbone, 94, of Providence, shake hands with a 溏心vlog免费B站 student after the roundtable discussion. Photo by Michael Salerno<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nLabeled \u201cThe Greatest Generation\u201d by newsman Tom Brokaw, Gray called the veterans \u201cThe Humblest Generation.\u201d World War II veterans, he estimated, number fewer than half a million today, dwindling daily by 400 to 500. \u201cYou have a rare opportunity today to witness history,\u201d said Gray, who helped relay questions when veterans\u2019 hearing failed. \u201cThe men that you see in front of you make up a very select group, the last group that can honestly say they saved the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
During the half-hour discussion, the stories provoked by the audience\u2019s questions were riveting, some funny, some rousing, some hard to hear and harder to tell.<\/p>\n
Giarrusso\u2019s baby doll, which he stored on a shelf with his gear, was eventually confiscated by his commanding officer, he told the students. \u201cMy commanding officer was a VMI [Virginia Military Institute] grad,\u201d he said later. \u201cHe was really strict. His favorite saying was, \u2018Now that you\u2019re in the service, give your soul to God because your ass is mine.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Of the girl who gave him the doll, they ended up getting married, he said.<\/p>\n
Asked about the transition from civilian to military life, Giarrusso said: \u201cWe were coming out of the Depression years, we were trying to establish ourselves here at home and all of a sudden the war comes along. I felt I wanted to do my part. \u2026 Once you enlist, you do what you are told. You don\u2019t ask questions \u2026 so that was an adjustment right there.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe thought we were doing a job that we had to do, and when we got drafted it was for the duration,\u201d Aquilante, who served in the Army Air Forces and was at Okinawa, responded when asked if he ever felt the war was unwinnable. \u201cThere was no such thing as a discharge or a tour of duty. It seemed like there was no end.\u201d<\/p>\n
But some questions weren\u2019t easily answered. Two veterans, Corvese and Fazzio, had witnessed the carnage at Omaha Beach on D-Day on June 6, 1944.<\/p>\n
Corvese was part of an eight-man Navy demolition unit \u2013 one of the first ashore at the heavily defended beach \u2013 there to knock out German obstacles ahead of the Allied invasion. When he exited the unit\u2019s rubber raft, Corvese was dragged under by the 60 pounds of gear on his back. Someone pulled him up, but when he looked for his unit, they were gone. A German shell had obliterated the raft. For a time, he was pinned down on the beach, looking for cover and witnessing unbelievable bloodshed.<\/p>\n
Asked how he found the strength to go on, Corvese responded, \u201cI tell you I was scared, and don\u2019t let anyone say they weren\u2019t scared. I was scared<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cWhen I went looking for my crew, I couldn\u2019t find them,\u201d he said, unable to continue.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve asked that question a few times,\u201d said Gray, helping to finish the story. \u201cThat\u2019s the reality of what he went through. Next year is the 75th<\/sup> anniversary of D-Day. Seventy-five years later, it still affects him this way.\u201d<\/p>\nFazzio\u2019s view of D-Day was no less emotional. He was in the first wave of Higgins boats ferrying infantry troops to one of the most heavily defended sectors. \u201cWhen we got in there, we could hear the bullets hitting against the boat and right away I started thinking of my mother,\u201d he said. \u201cI kept praying, \u2018I hope she doesn\u2019t get one of those telegrams.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
The first wave of Allied troops on Omaha suffered a 50-percent casualty rate, and the troops Fazzio transported met with devastating fire. \u201cI looked around and I could see soldiers being ripped off the beach, see soldiers getting drowned. It was awful.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fazzio was shot through the left shoulder, but was able to turn his boat around and complete his mission. His mother ended up receiving a telegram, he said. Four months later, his brother was killed in the Pacific.<\/p>\n
Allen Santucci \u201920, a major in public relations, who asked Fazzio about his experience on D-Day, was taken by the emotion of the discussion. \u201cI thought it would be intense for some people but the whole room was on edge listening to their stories. You could feel for what they\u2019d been through.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was so interesting to hear all the different stories and see the emotion they brought while telling them,\u201d said Brittney Allen \u201921, also a public relations major. \u201cI got choked up myself knowing that they were my age when they went through this.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought it was amazing, what all these men have been through,\u201d said Brendan Nolty \u201920, a major in communications and public relations, whose father served in Afghanistan. \u201cIt made me relate to what my father has been through in a way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Closing the roundtable, Nolty asked the veterans whether, if as young men today, they would serve.<\/p>\n
In near unison, they answered, \u201cAbsolutely.\u201d<\/p>\n
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KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 Feb. 15, 2018 \u2013 Domenic Giarrusso\u2019s World War II story started with a \u201cbaby doll.\u201d It wasn\u2019t a story of a G.I. and a pinup model. It was an actual baby doll. Giarrusso enlisted in the Army Air Forces during his senior year at Central High School in Providence, and a girl […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":74404,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[18],"class_list":["post-74401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives","tag-harrington-school-of-communication-and-media"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74401"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74401\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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