A soldier looks back on his days in WWII

by Gina Roswell staff writer

In 1939, war had already erupted in Italy, and a man by the name of Paul Paviglianiti was being forced to join the Italian army, against his wishes. His sister, back in the United States, wrote a letter to President Roosevelt requesting her brother's release from Italy. President Roosevelt then wrote a letter to Benito Mussolini demanding Paviglianiti's allowance to leave Italy to return to the United States, the country in which he spent the first 11 months of his life. Mussolini granted this request and Paviglianiti, at the age of 19, was sent to America.

Threats of war were not far behind, however. One day, after returning home from work, Paviglianiti encountered his uncle in tears. He recalls being told, "We're at war. Japan bombed Pearl Harbor." In August 1942, Paviglianiti was drafted into the American army.

After being drafted, Paviglianiti was full of fear due to the fact that he knew very little English. His lieutenant told him not to worry about this problem - he would not be sent to the front line.

"Speaking English doesn't mean anything because it takes 11 men to shoot bullets," the lieutenant said. "You can be one of the guys to bring the supplies. You can work in the quartermaster, you can be a truck driver, you can be anything. You don't have to be a soldier."

In 1943, Paviglianiti was sent over-seas to New Guinea. "It took us 21 days to get from California to New Guinea from 1943-1944 by ship. After the war was over, it only took us 13 days to get home."

Although he slowly learned English on his own during his time in the war, Paviglianiti remembers that his fear never subsided. "I was nervous. I wasn't supposed to go in the front lines because I couldn't speak [English]. By acci- dent I had to go to the front lines. They [the lieutenants] saw me and I was getting nervous so they sent me back."

Paviglianiti remembers that the men in the army were taught to hate the Japanese. "They taught us that they [the Japanese] were bad people. We were all young guys and we were kind of scared. After a while, though, we found out it wasn't that bad. It was all jungles. You had to go get the Japanese out of the caves. That's how we won the war."

"After the Americans threw the nuclear bomb in 1945, Hiroshima surrendered." At this time, Paviglianiti and the other troops with him waited in the Philippines to be sent home. Upon his arrival back into the United States, life returned to what he knew to be "normal." He returned to work, got married and, as Paviglianiti says, "it goes from there."

From witnessing the events of Sept. 11, Paviglianiti says, "It [war] was not like now. Now you have air war; back then it was foot/soldiers. You just stand there and take orders from your superiors. You do what they tell you to do. You're in a strange country. You either fight or you die."

Editor's note: Gina Roswell is Paul Paviglianiti's granddaughter.