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VOL. 2
PVT. PHILIP A. CORRADO,
HvHt back from Africa and Sicils
with the Purple Heart, and Pi< ’ " ‘ ‘ -
William K Salim tro returned p
from 3 3 months' dut> in Panama. - -JR
pla v Hillards in the main daj room T T
id tiie Academic Regiment to ■?J’aß
whic h this are mm. assigned. ()! 1| W V
fmml I’ S Army Photo TIS BH| A
Combat Is Series Os Close
Shaves, Says Sicily Veteran
“Combat is just one close shave after another,” remark
ed Pvt. Philip A. Corrado—wearer of the Purple Heart for
wounds sustained in Sicily—as he shot a game of billiards
with some of his new friends in I) Company, Academic Regi
ment, which he joined this week under the policy of rota-
tion of troops.
“You get used to close shaves
after awhile Shrapnel hitting
your helmet is just one of those
things,” said the veteran of the
African and Italian campaigns.
“Once the right heel of my shoe
was torn off by machine gun
bullets. Another time I discov
ered that some bullets had trav
eled right through my pack."
"Certainly sewed me up,”
grumbled pool player Pfc. Wil
liam R. Salinetro, back from
Panama and sore as blazes that
he landed in the States instead
of in Europe.
“KNOCKED OUT”
“And that old saying that you
never hear the shell that gets
you,” laughed Corrado, “is cer
tainly true.” The 22-year old ex
grocery clerk from Hazelton, Pa.,
who has been in uniform since
he was 18, believes that he was
“knocked out” by a mortar shell
that probably landed about five
yards to the right of the fox
hole which he had dug “some
where beyond the Sicilian town
of Gangi.”
“But I can’t be sure,” Corra
do added, chalking his cue, “I
never did really know what hit
me.”
At the insistence of Salinetro,
who was a photolitho plate
worker in Pittsburgh before the
FORT BENNING, GEORGIA, THURSDAY, MAR. 30, 1944
war, Corrado told some of the
highlights of his experiences
with one of the first Infantry
regiments to go into action in the
European-African theater of war.
Landing with the first wave
at Oran as an automatic rifle
man, Corrado says his company
walked all night and met the
enemy in the morning. The
French had artillery against only
light mortars on the American
side, but when they attacked
they made the mistake of using
cavalry.
SHOT DOWN CAVALRY
“We shot all the men off the
horses, and that stopped the at
tack,” Corrado recalls. After the
French surrendered, his regiment
moved up to meet the Germans,
traveling now by air, later by
truck, then on foot. After tak
ing the Faid Pass, Corrado says,
the Americans turned it over to
the French and went on to take
Gafsa and finally to fight for 22
days at El Guettar.
“I was now assigned as scout,”
Corrado recalls, “carrying an
Ml and sidearms. The first night
we walked till morning to get
around the Italians who were
defending the pass leading to El
Guettar. The artillery shook
them up quite a bit, and by
morning we were capturing them
in large numbers.”
Since Corrado is of Italian-
American descent and speaks
Italian fairly well he was able
to question many of the pris
oners.
“Most of them didn’t want to
fight,” he discovered. “One 18-
year old Italian said that when
he was home on furlough he
found out that his next assign
ment was Africa. His mother
told him to surrender at the first
chance. He did.”
The Blackshirt officers seem
ed to be the only strongly pro-
Fascist Italian soldiers, accord
ing to Corrado. “It was the of
ficers who asked to see our
automatic artillery!”
This belief that modern war
machinery had gone so far was
partly bred in them, Corrado be
lieves, by their pessimism over
their own equipment, most of
which dated back at least six
years. While their clothing was
fair, he says their food was ter
rible and their morale very low.
“The high spot of the African
campaign for us came when we
knocked out Rommel’s famous
Tenth Panzer DivteionAjKhey at
tacked us at five o’aock one
night. Our artillery, anti-tank
companies and tank destroyers
broke them up, and our Infantry
routed them. But it was tough
fighting from there on—we
fought our way hill by hill to
Mateur. Once the Nazis coun
terattacked nine times, and each
time only a few foot soldiers
(Continued on page 5)
Most NCO Class
Men Expected To
Leave With Ratings
The first group of non-commissioned officers attend
ing the Academic Regiment’s NCO school in Harmony
Church are now entering their fourth and last week of spe
cial training, and will be available for reassignment to line
outfits as soon as they are graduated from the course on
April 7th A second class, also
numbering approximately 100
non-coms, will start the course
on the same day as part of The
Infantry School’s policy of giv
ing to Academic Regiment cor
porals and sergeants an oppor
tunity to preserve their ratings
when they join combat units un
der the policy of rotation of
troops.
MEN LOOK SHABIP
“The men look very sharp,”
reported Lt. Philip Powers, com
manding officer of F Company,
in reviewing the progress of the
non-com training this week.
Many of the men, 'who range
from Technician Fifth Grade to
Technical Sergeant, had not done
any line duty for several years,
since their assignments called
for specialist work varying in
nature from instruction of offic
er candidates to clerking, print
ing and art work. ‘Their prog
ress has exceeded <ur fondest
expectations,” Lt. Powers de
clared, “and we now Relieve that
most of the non-cons will go
out with their ratings and will
S. SGT. LaGROSSE. (Of
ficial U. S. Army Ph^to —The
Infantry School.)
be qualified to hold them ”
As part of their weapons train
ing more than 80 of the non
coms qualified on the Ml rifle
last week, with two men mak
ing expert and 18 firing sharp
shooter
The course, under the super
vision of Maj B. L Learman.
Infantry School assistant direc
tor of training, has paralleled
the regular course for officer
candidates except that it has ex
cluded those phases of study not
needed by the non-commission
ed officer. The class has wit-
(Continued on page 5)
Vet To Retire
One Mile From
Regiment Camp
After 24 years in the Army, S.
Sgt. Nicholas R LaGrosse will
retire tomorrow, but like most
old soldiers, he won’t get far
away from the service. He plans
to make his home at Destin, Fla ,
just one mile away from the
Rest Camp of the Academic Reg
iment, in which he has served
since 1941, when it was the In
fantry School Detachment.
A coal-miner as a boy in Haz
leton, Pa., he fooled the recruit
ing sergeant into signing him up
in 1920 at the untender age of
14, and he has been in uniform
at Fort Benning ever since. Dur
ing his first enlistment he was
an instructor on the automatic
rifle, and with weapons as his
hobby all through his service he
has earned a whole chestful of
medals for qualification in arms.
In 1925 and 1926 he was a men.
her of the powerful Benning
football squad which at that time
was famous with players like
Kjelstrom and Tinsley stacking
up with the best in the South.
For fifteen years a member of
the service company of the 29th
Infantry, LaGrosse says “I help
ed build up Fort Benning—l rec
ognize every tree and lawn on
the post.” In 1941, when he was
on special duty in the bowling
alley, he was ordered to join the
Weapons Section, and put in
charge of the ammunition shed,
rising to the rank of staff ser
geant before he took ill and was
hospitalized last August He ex
pects to start off civilian life as
a fisherman, and will apply later
for a job on one of the govern
ment's crash boats sailing in
Florida waters. He is married to
the former Miss Ernestine So
well and is the father of two in
fant girls.
No 28.
