I am posting this story of an 82nd Airborne veteran, submitted by his son, who is searching for any paratroopers or their children who may have known his father.
From Robert Macchia:
I am putting my fathers story together, but some details may not be perfect since he passed away in Jan. of 1988. I will tell the story as I remember from what he told me about his war stories when I was a little boy, many years back, as I am now 62.
My father was born Sept. 17, 1919 in Brooklyn, NY. He was part of a big family consisting of 7 brothers and 2 sisters. Their father was a shoemaker and they barely made ends meet. They slept in bunk beds in a small apartment. When my father was 18 he lost his father who was only 43 so all of them worked, went to school and chipped in to support the family.
When the US declared war on Japan on Dec. 7, 1941 he was 22 and was drafted into the Army as well as all of his brothers, one of them joined the navy and lied about his age so he could serve his country. My father was promoted to corporal and then became Mess Sgt. He was responsible for preparing three meals a day for over 400 soldiers in Ft. Benning, GA where he lived with my mother for about a year. About a year later on March 13, 1944 my sister Virginia was born. He never got to see her until he came home in 1945.
He wanted to make his mark in the service so after basic training he decided to join the Officers Training School and become a paratrooper. He then was transported to Ft. Bragg, NC.
He graduated as 2nd Lieut. He made 13 jumps between his training and into enemy territory and fought in The Battle of the Bulge, Normandy, and D-Day. On his 13th jump he fractured his ankle, but his military records show nothing about his injury or treatment, he had told me he missed one offensive due to this injury. All of his men were fond of him and would not disperse during an offensive on the battlefield and a Colonel came to my father and told him to get his men to disperse, they would not. The Colonel then pulled his gun on my father and told him to make them disperse or else. Just after that incident he was given the horrible duty of graves registration officer, picking up dead bodies of his comrades after battle. A duty he never forgot.
He marched through France in a wet uniform for weeks on end and developed dysentery, a severe flu-like ailment.
When he came out of the Army, he wanted to start a new life as a carpenter, which was one of his trades he had learned as a boy. He visited Real Estate offices in the Ridgewood areas of Queens and Brooklyn, NY with my mother and infant sister in his arms. He was refused any housing because of his name “Rocco L. Macchia.” This prejudice against a soldier was unnerving to him and my mother. They finally settled into an apartment after endless searching. He worked as a carpenter in a lumber mill but the pay was meager and they had difficulty surviving.
In 1950 my mother saw an ad in a newspaper for real estate agents. She told my father to go for the interview and he was hired. He became a very successful real estate agent and moved on to his own business a few years later with three partners in 1955. In 1963 he moved into his own Real Estate Business and became well known and very successful. In 1966 I joined the business but as the late 1970’s approached business was terrible so I left. My father died in January 1988 after serving his country and community well. A family member took over the business, but I was not involved. I had been hired as a Realty Specialist with the Federal Government. The family business is now closed after over 45 years.
If anyone out there in this vast world knew my father through their father I would like to hear from them. My email address is:
bobemakk@optonline.netThank you, Robert L. Macchia, West Babylon, NY
