Today, November 11th, we celebrate Veterans Day, formerly known as Armistice Day. It is a day of reflection for many who have served their country, both in wartime and during often-tenuous peacekeeping missions. Many veterans will relive a past they can never forget: the things they have seen and done, the places they have been, those who served beside them, those who fell in battle, and those who lived to carry on and remember their comrades. If, like me, you are a veteran, these things will, like an unstoppable army, invade your mind, your heart, and your soul today. And of all those memories, the sharpest will be the thoughts of your buddies, your comrades in arms.
On October 7th of this year, my buddy, P. Gerald Barbato, celebrated his 84th birthday. As I have for all of his prior birthdays, I placed my annual telephone call to him, to wish him well.
Of all the men with whom I had soldiered during World War II, Gerald is my last remaining contact. On September of 1946, he and I and the rest of our military buddies parted company; our replacements had arrived to relieve us. We were the men of the United States Army’s 24th Signal Company, stationed in Kokura, Kyushu, Japan.
After almost a full year of occupying Japan, our parting was heavy with mixed emotions. We were happy to be returning home to civilian life after our tour of duty. But at the same time, we realized that this would be farewell. Before sailing forever away from Japan, we had all exchanged our names and contact information in order to remain in touch.
Over the years, the list of names dwindled as contacts were lost and we found ourselves down to a handful of friends who kept in touch. In my last conversation with him, I told him of the passing of Paul Bartels, a sad occurrence leaving us the last remaining members of our group. How odd that feels, as it seems like just yesterday that he and I both shared our 19th birthday in Matsuyama, Japan, in October of 1945. He is three days older than I am, and since that day, our friendship has grown.
I always quizzed him about what the P. in his name signifies. At first, he just sloughed it off, refusing to answer. But after I pursued the issue, he said, “In confidence, Tommy, I was not expected to live when I was born, and so, was named after my dead Aunt Patsy. Now I have to live with that name!” From then on, I always called him Pat!
I returned home from the war in the fall of 1946. A few years later, I received an invitation to Pat’s wedding, which I gladly accepted. It was my first visit to Long Island, New York. Pat’s wife Kathy was as beautiful as the photograph he’d shown us all in Japan. He asked his cousins to accompany me through the joyous ceremony and reception, and also to ensure — as he and Kathy embarked upon their honeymoon — that I had returned home safely to South Jersey.
In April 21, 1951, I married Madeline (Midge) Fortino and got on with my life. However, I still managed to keep in touch with the men with whom I had served, via annual Christmas cards. I accompanied these with letters of the events that had transpired earlier each year.
1954 was a banner year for us, as Midge and I celebrated the birth of our first child, my son Tom Junior, and Pat and Kathy welcomed their first child, a daughter named Patty. But, 1975 was a bad year as Midge suddenly passed away, leaving me with Tom Junior and his brother, Michael. In trying to adjust to the loss of my wife, I went on the nightshift at work because it was easier to care for my sons that way. With so much going on in my life, I dropped out of sight for a while with my old Army buddies.
In July of 1983, I remarried Priscilla (Pat) Nikunen, and added her three children to our blended family. Like Pat’s Kathy, my Pat was a Long Island girl whose children still lived there. This meant that I now had a reason to visit my buddy Pat in person. Since then, we have enjoyed each other’s company while making family visits to Long Island. During one of our visits, we had dinner at Republic Field Airport in Farmingdale. It was in a World War II type restaurant, filled with memorabilia of the era. It was a wonderful night filled with reminders of those heady, scary, glorious times overseas.
In our phone conversations over the years, Pat always reminds me that he hopes to be the oldest living World War II veteran, with me three days behind him! So, today — November 11, 2010, I’ll be reminiscing about my buddy and our tour of duty during World War II. I’ll be hoping we will still be around to celebrate Veterans Day in 2011!
I sincerely hope that my buddy Pat gets his wish. As I have traveled down the hard road of life, I have found that hope is a good thing. It may be the best of things, for without hope, life would be as cold as yesterday’s pizza.
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