Uncle Tato (continued) by Brian Tervenski
At Fort Dix he was cycled into a Basic Training Company and a larger Family of strict military discipline, routine, uniforms, physical training, combat training. Each day of basic training started at 5:30 a.m.and ended at 10 p.m. Tato was taught the chain of command and to obey orders without question. He was to regard himself first as a member of a group formed for mutual survival intent on completing the mission. He sweated through calisthenics ran over, under, around and through the course of obstacles. He broke down and assembled all light infantry weapons, scampered up and down ropes and poles, marched, marched double time, drilled, in close order, qualified on the range with his weapon, even fired a bazooka.
He peeled potatoes, mopped latrine floors, kept his gear in order and his locker organized. He learned how and why to dig fox holes and slit trenches, bivouac in all weather and get along with people from Texas. He sat through lectures on military tradition, telephone relays, personal hygiene, and venereal disease. Two months later he was no longer a civilian and April 4th 1941 they certified him as seasoned, toughened soldier and ready for more training. His orders christened him a member of the 51st Signal Battalion and told Pvt. Mirto he would be going to Camp Monmouth, New Jersey, for Signal Communications School and specialist training. Ft Monmouth was the Signal Corp School for the Eastern half of the country and was in the midst of a major expansion to meet the needs of the modern army. New technology such as Radar and the Radio-Telephone would change warfare and men were needed to operate and install this equipment.
In free time and on passes Tato would go to the beach at Asbury Park’s Convention Center.
In classes and training Tato learned the craft of a Telephone Lineman installing and repairing telegraph and telephone lines, switches, relays and other equipment. He went to climbing school, qualified with side arms and wore a pistol while working on the poles. He was promoted to Corporal. His unit was then posted to the military reservation at Camp A.P. Hill in Virginia, not far from Bowling Green, where he would participate in field exercises and learn to live work, and maneuver in the open. Here he experienced live fire drills, full pack marches, and lived in two man tents and slept on the ground for weeks. Later in the Fall of 1941, Camp Hill would become the staging area for Patton’s Task Force A bound for North Africa. Uncle Tato’s outfit, The 51st Signal Battalion, would later follow the initial waves of the invasion and provide communication support for American and British armies as they fought across North Africa and through Italy.
It was 1942. America was in the war. War Bonds Drives would raise 13,000,000 dollars for the war effort. Gert and Babe went to the Bardavon or the Rialto Theater in Poughkeepsie and saw Bing Crosby sing “White Christmas” in the film “Holiday Inn”. They bought Cokes for five cents and pop corn for a dime. Later that year Bob Hope kept everybody in the theater laughing in “The Road To Morocco”. On the West Coast, the government arrested 120,000 Americans of Japanese decent and kept them in internment camps for the duration of the war. Some of them had sons in the Armed Forces fighting in the Pacific. Black American soldiers were forced to serve in segregated units. Gasoline rationing allowed for three gallons per household per week. “Don’t Sit Under The Apple Tree” and “Deep in the Heart of Texas” ranked high on Pop Charts. Tato’s brothers were serving the country. Sammy was in the Navy and Pete was in the National Guard. His sister Josie and her husband Johnny who was too old to be drafted lived on Grubb Street next door to a house that Sam would buy in the 1950s. Jenny and her second husband Ray who was about to go into the Marines, were living in Poughkeepsie with Nana.
Tato’s next base was Ft Blanding, Florida. Land of mosquitoes, sand, and Scrub Palmetto Trees. The sand was ankle deep in many places, and the men in his unit would learn to deal with the pests and insects they would become accustomed to in Africa. The tents he lived in here were larger than those at Camp Hill, almost luxurious by comparison, but often they had holes that needed mending. The unit was issued new technical equipment and newer combat gear. For the cold weather there was a wood stove in each tent. December 1942 while riding in the back of a large truck returning to camp from line stringing exercises Tato’s hand was pinned between two spools of wire and his thumb was mangled. At the hospital, doctors operated and put a pin in his thumb to set it properly. He spent several months recuperating, but stayed with his unit as they prepared to head to the war. Four months later March 3rd, 1943, the 51st Signal Battalion wearing patches of General Mark Clarke’s 5th Army boarded the Troop Ship “SS John Erickson” in New York City.
They did not know where they were bound but on March 18, 1943 the ship docked in Casablanca, North Africa. Tato celebrated his thirtieth birthday and two years in the Army on Feb 5th 1943. What followed in the next two years was a drive across North Africa, the invasion of Sicily and Italy, and a march into Rome. Tato's unit followed the infantry and erected poles and strung wire for communications. He lived in tents, endured the heat and the cold, ate what was available and worked daily. He visited the village of Nana's birth outside Palermo and contacted relatives. In all those years he had not been home and the only connection to his dear family in Poughkeepsie was through letters that they lovingly exchanged.
After the war, until the day he died, he lived in the house on Worrall Avenue. He worked at various Supermarkets until he was hired by IBM in 1950. For the next thirty years his life was regulated by work, sports and his beloved family. He never married. He went back to his room by the kitchen, back to being the good son and everybody's favorite Uncle. Years later he was my son's godfather and when I watched him hold my son in his arms I remembered the love I felt as a child. He died on Oct. 12, 1981 of a massive coronary after finishing a round of golf on his favorite course.
He is buried at Saint Peters Cemetery in Poughkeepsie, Dutchess County, New York.
He peeled potatoes, mopped latrine floors, kept his gear in order and his locker organized. He learned how and why to dig fox holes and slit trenches, bivouac in all weather and get along with people from Texas. He sat through lectures on military tradition, telephone relays, personal hygiene, and venereal disease. Two months later he was no longer a civilian and April 4th 1941 they certified him as seasoned, toughened soldier and ready for more training. His orders christened him a member of the 51st Signal Battalion and told Pvt. Mirto he would be going to Camp Monmouth, New Jersey, for Signal Communications School and specialist training. Ft Monmouth was the Signal Corp School for the Eastern half of the country and was in the midst of a major expansion to meet the needs of the modern army. New technology such as Radar and the Radio-Telephone would change warfare and men were needed to operate and install this equipment.
In free time and on passes Tato would go to the beach at Asbury Park’s Convention Center.
In classes and training Tato learned the craft of a Telephone Lineman installing and repairing telegraph and telephone lines, switches, relays and other equipment. He went to climbing school, qualified with side arms and wore a pistol while working on the poles. He was promoted to Corporal. His unit was then posted to the military reservation at Camp A.P. Hill in Virginia, not far from Bowling Green, where he would participate in field exercises and learn to live work, and maneuver in the open. Here he experienced live fire drills, full pack marches, and lived in two man tents and slept on the ground for weeks. Later in the Fall of 1941, Camp Hill would become the staging area for Patton’s Task Force A bound for North Africa. Uncle Tato’s outfit, The 51st Signal Battalion, would later follow the initial waves of the invasion and provide communication support for American and British armies as they fought across North Africa and through Italy.
It was 1942. America was in the war. War Bonds Drives would raise 13,000,000 dollars for the war effort. Gert and Babe went to the Bardavon or the Rialto Theater in Poughkeepsie and saw Bing Crosby sing “White Christmas” in the film “Holiday Inn”. They bought Cokes for five cents and pop corn for a dime. Later that year Bob Hope kept everybody in the theater laughing in “The Road To Morocco”. On the West Coast, the government arrested 120,000 Americans of Japanese decent and kept them in internment camps for the duration of the war. Some of them had sons in the Armed Forces fighting in the Pacific. Black American soldiers were forced to serve in segregated units. Gasoline rationing allowed for three gallons per household per week. “Don’t Sit Under The Apple Tree” and “Deep in the Heart of Texas” ranked high on Pop Charts. Tato’s brothers were serving the country. Sammy was in the Navy and Pete was in the National Guard. His sister Josie and her husband Johnny who was too old to be drafted lived on Grubb Street next door to a house that Sam would buy in the 1950s. Jenny and her second husband Ray who was about to go into the Marines, were living in Poughkeepsie with Nana.
Tato’s next base was Ft Blanding, Florida. Land of mosquitoes, sand, and Scrub Palmetto Trees. The sand was ankle deep in many places, and the men in his unit would learn to deal with the pests and insects they would become accustomed to in Africa. The tents he lived in here were larger than those at Camp Hill, almost luxurious by comparison, but often they had holes that needed mending. The unit was issued new technical equipment and newer combat gear. For the cold weather there was a wood stove in each tent. December 1942 while riding in the back of a large truck returning to camp from line stringing exercises Tato’s hand was pinned between two spools of wire and his thumb was mangled. At the hospital, doctors operated and put a pin in his thumb to set it properly. He spent several months recuperating, but stayed with his unit as they prepared to head to the war. Four months later March 3rd, 1943, the 51st Signal Battalion wearing patches of General Mark Clarke’s 5th Army boarded the Troop Ship “SS John Erickson” in New York City.
They did not know where they were bound but on March 18, 1943 the ship docked in Casablanca, North Africa. Tato celebrated his thirtieth birthday and two years in the Army on Feb 5th 1943. What followed in the next two years was a drive across North Africa, the invasion of Sicily and Italy, and a march into Rome. Tato's unit followed the infantry and erected poles and strung wire for communications. He lived in tents, endured the heat and the cold, ate what was available and worked daily. He visited the village of Nana's birth outside Palermo and contacted relatives. In all those years he had not been home and the only connection to his dear family in Poughkeepsie was through letters that they lovingly exchanged.
After the war, until the day he died, he lived in the house on Worrall Avenue. He worked at various Supermarkets until he was hired by IBM in 1950. For the next thirty years his life was regulated by work, sports and his beloved family. He never married. He went back to his room by the kitchen, back to being the good son and everybody's favorite Uncle. Years later he was my son's godfather and when I watched him hold my son in his arms I remembered the love I felt as a child. He died on Oct. 12, 1981 of a massive coronary after finishing a round of golf on his favorite course.
He is buried at Saint Peters Cemetery in Poughkeepsie, Dutchess County, New York.