Indiana’s Dick Vitale can nonetheless hear the despondent cries of his mom 78 years later.
“I used to be within the kitchen. I keep in mind it prefer it was 10 minutes in the past … listening to my mom cry out,” he stated. “It was simply horrible to listen to her cry out.”
Simply moments prior, his mom watched because the mail provider approached their house and handed her a telegram.
“She knew about these telegrams,” Vitale stated. “As quickly as she noticed that telegram, she knew what was occurring.”
The telegram was the first technique of notifying households that their cherished one has been killed in motion throughout World Battle II. On this case, the Vitale household was being notified of 2nd Lt. Thomas Edward Vitale’s loss of life. He was 22 years outdated and a pilot within the U.S. Military Air Corps.
Dick Vitale, now 89, was solely 12 years outdated on the time of his brother’s loss of life. He was the youngest of 10 kids (5 boys and 5 ladies) dwelling in Meyersdale in Somerset County, born to Italian immigrant dad and mom. Listening to the information that his older brother Thomas was not returning house was devastating.
“There was an image of Thomas in our lounge. It was my favourite,” Dick stated whereas cradling a special navy portrait of his brother. “He’s wearing his pilot uniform, the sheepskin wool/leather-based jacket and he has goggles on. He’s wanting skyward. Typically, as a child, I might simply sit and take a look at that image. I used to be enthralled with it.
“I want I nonetheless had that image.”
Thomas Edward Vitale graduated from Meyerdale Excessive College in 1939 and joined the U.S. Military Air Corps. He later went by aviator coaching and immediately turned a commissioned second lieutenant and pilot of a P-38 Lightning.
“He all the time wished to fly,” Dick Vitale stated of his late brother. “He all the time knew he wished to fly. I suppose pilots are simply born to fly.”
Upon finishing his aviator coaching, the navy wished to maintain Thomas Vitale stateside to coach different pilots. Thomas, who suffered from what Dick referred to as “dangerous bronchial asthma,” had different plans.
“He insisted on going abroad and combating,” he stated.
As a pilot of a P-38, the danger of being shot down was extraordinarily excessive as they routinely escorted B-17s and different bombers throughout missions into energetic battle zones. P-38s have been unofficially referred to as “Widowmakers” by those that flew them.
Based on a letter from the U.S. Battle Division that was printed within the June 21, 1945, version of the Meyersdale Republican, Thomas Vitale “was the pilot and sole occupant of a P-38 (Lightning) plane which didn’t return from a bomber escort mission to Vienna, Austria, 16 June 1944. His plane was final seen because it broke formation and went down in a dive throughout an assault by enemy plane close to Lake Balaton, Hungary.”
Thomas Vitale had been thought of lacking in motion for one yr earlier than the navy declared him deceased.
“Since your son, Second Lieutenant Thomas E. Vitale … was reported lacking in motion 16 June 1944, the Battle Division has entertained the hope that he survived, and that data could be revealed dispelling the uncertainty surrounding his absence. Nevertheless, as in lots of instances, the situations of warfare deny us such data,” the letter states.
Thomas Vitale’s stays have been returned to the U.S. and interred at a cemetery in Meyersdale.
“That simply introduced again the ache over again for my mom. I used to be in highschool by that point,” Dick Vitale stated. “For years and years and years and years … if anybody talked about Thomas’ identify, my mom would break into tears.”
Quickly after studying of Thomas Vitale’s loss of life, the household went to go to relations in Baltimore to spice up Mrs. Vitale’s spirits.
“She went into a really, very critical despair,” Dick Vitale stated. “She wouldn’t even get off the bed. Many individuals thought we have been going to lose her, it was so dangerous. I used to be just a bit child. I used to be scared to loss of life.”
Dick stated Japan surrendered to the U.S. whereas the Vitales have been in Baltimore, which introduced some reduction to the household since he nonetheless had two different brothers serving within the navy.
However when it got here time for Dick to resolve what he wished to do along with his life, he and some buddies contemplated becoming a member of the U.S. Navy. It was 1950 and the Korean Battle was simply getting began.
“Mother and Dad obtained collectively and determined sufficient Vitales had died for his or her nation,” he stated. “I used to be informed I used to be going to school.”
Dick Vitale didn’t be part of the U.S. Navy. As an alternative, he attended Indiana State Lecturers Faculty — now generally known as Indiana College of Pennsylvania — and earned a level in schooling. He taught highschool artwork courses for almost 40 years in Indiana and Armstrong counties.
“I moved to Indiana in 1950 and by no means left,” he stated.
This weekend, Dick Vitale will likely be eager about his late brother, Thomas Vitale, and the last word sacrifice he made for his nation throughout World Battle II.
“It was a mandatory struggle,” he stated. “The Nazis have been so very evil. They wanted to be stopped.
“Thomas helped to try this.”
