. . Francis Rifugiato joined the Army ROTC’s enlisted reserve corps while a music student at Duquesne University because he assumed the war would be over by the time he graduated.  He was ordered to report to active duty in 1943.  “I went from learning how to play clarinet in a

. . “War is hell. Everbody loses, and nobody wins.” Robert Riethmiller shared that sentiment freely, but if you asked him about his experience on the Pacific Islands during World War II, he’d be less likely to talk about the brutal parts of his experience than he would something that would

. . Herman Rosner entered the US Army in April 1941 and joined G Company, 68th Coast Artillery as an AA gunner. He fought in Italy, where brutal winters and limited supplies made things “rough for a while.”  He recalls, “We were losing a lot of men…you wonder sometimes, ‘it’s going

. . During WW II, Robert J. Rose of New Brighton, PA served as a cannoneer with Battery “A” of the 574th AAA Auto Weapons Battalion, 13th Armored Division.  Patton’s Army.  After landing in France, he and his unit moved across Europe towards a particularly stubborn German entrenchment known as The Bulge.

. . During WW II, Frank R. Strano of Ambridge, Pennsylvania served with the 998th Treadway Bridge Company of the 300th Combat Engineers.   “We were not infantry,” Frank says proudly, “although we got shot at a lot, we were engineers.” And that’s how the Army’s 1943 Engineer Soldier’s Handbook puts