This article appeared in a Bologna, Italy newspaper this week. A friend of Rocky's, Matteo, had this article published. Matteo, then placed it on his blog. From there I was able to translate it using my Google Toolbar (love THAT thang!!) Also including the original clipping.
Here's the translation...
Thursday, August 26, 2010
The dream of traveling soldier Rocky on Facebook "Liberal Italy, want to go back"
WAS THE April 21, 1945, after six hundred days of war on the Italian front, from Salerno to Cassino Anzio through Florence and the Apennines, participated in the liberation of Bologna with the 34th Army Division Red Bull statunitense.Oggi Roque J Rioja, for friends "Rocky" has 88 years and is on his Facebook page . Writes and "chat" as a boy and a dream: "Back in Italy, in places where I fought and not only - he says - then there was no time to visit this beautiful country. I only remember one day in Venice, I took the gondola went to SanMarco square and cathedral, ate and drank my C ration of vino.Roma but I saw her passing just once away from the Coliseum. "
ROCKY now lives in Kansas City, his hometown and it is clear who is proud of Mexican origin. For his actions of war was highly decorated. Bronze Medal 'I have found the photo while I am honored dalgenerale Bolte, "he says, laPurple lavalorosa Heart" purple heart "for the brave and much more grateful." Our division, the 34th, which landed at Salerno and ended Laguerre Brescia in May 1945, to return home but did not have the recognition he deserved. My honor guard was made by a person, a neighbor who thanked me, "he says with a pinch of 'irony.
Years later it was rebuilt. In 2004 he was received at the White House by President GeorgeW.Bush.
On Facebook, for two years now this sprightly veteran after the war he worked as a railroad worker, has found a new life. He has over a hundred friends from around the world. From Italy. "I like to speak with them, I was invited to celebrate the release of Livorno by the Americans by some boys. With my heart was with them. " Online but also provides music Mexican Kiss. Birthday Sunday when he poured in from StatiUniti as many greetings from Italy. "I like to talk with young people, many feel that they thank me for what we did," he says.
Episodes of war but does not like talking much. "Dreadful moment dead and many friends, always fought for six hundred giorni.Uso us because we were all together," he says. "First in North Africa with the 135esima Infantry Division, explains - Then with the 34th Red Bull in Salerno, Battipaglia then , Benevento, Mount Pantano, Anzio, Monte labattagliadi Cassino.Passammo the Volturno three times, then Florence, Cecina, Livorno. And hell on the Gothic Line in our Apennines. "Winter 1944, cold, mud, dirt, little food was brought by mule from the Italian and thank you again today," says Rocky. On April 21, 1945 liberation of Bologna. "When we remember that we made in Bologna cleaning sauerkraut (German ed). After Bologna, the 34th began its march along the Po Valley now libera.Entrò also Reggio Emilia with the partisans. Watch a video on the internet period on that day. "I also remember that city, but in passing, few momenti.Proseguimmo to other cities, then arrivammoa Brescia where the Germans surrendered, and we all wondered: When you return to home?. "Sixty years later, from Kansas City, via Facebook, this veteran is a hymn to life, but seems to beg the world network." When you return in Italy? ".
My father, Jack Casey, was a member of the 720th Railway Operating Battalion. As with most WW2 vets he very rarely spoke of his experiences in the war. I do remember him speaking of St. Lo and seeing the heavy bombers overhead. I also remember him mentioning St. Mere Eglise but no detail.
I know many of you have the same feelings of wishing you asked more questions while our parents were still with us. My Dad passed away in January of 2006. In cleaning out the house I found several ribbons and his dog tags in an old box in the basement. One ribbon had four battle stars. Also I found two pictures, one very graphic of the death camps.
Can anyone shed any light as to where the 720th went in Europe? I know that after the Bulge they were in Liege Belgium and crossed the Rhine shortly after but can't find any mention of liberating any camps or any additional detail. Beyond that I am frustrated at the dead ends.
For almost half a century, an unfinished Nazi propaganda film of the Warsaw Ghetto, simply titled “Das Ghetto” and discovered by East German archivists after the war, was used by scholars and historians as a flawed but authentic record of ghetto life. Shot over 30 days in May 1942 — just two months before deportations to the Treblinka extermination camp would begin — this hourlong silent film juxtaposed random scenes of Jews enjoying various luxuries with images of profound suffering.
