Gennaro "Jerry" Servedio (32722127)

Rank: Staff Sergeant

Date of Enlistment: 18 Jan 43 Queens, NY

Dates of Service: 25 Jan 43 to 23 Jul 44 United States

31 Jul 44 to 07 Dec 45 ETO

Date of Discharge: 29 Dec 45 Separation Center Fort Dix, NJ

Like many men of his generation, my dad didn't speak much of his experiences during the war, and that now is unfortunate, as so many WWII veterans are currently dying in the first decade of the 21st century - according to one statistic, 1000 vets per day are dying; what the Nazis and Japanese could not do, the ultimate power of time accomplishes, veteran or civilian.

He talked humorously about his experience at times; he would begin mouthing a false deep-macho tone, saying,'...yeah I hit Omaha Beach in '44..." and then deflating,'..well, OK, it was July of '44!'.

He was a college student of 18 years studying at St. John's University in NYC when he was drafted, being inducted in January of 1943 - apparently recognizing his above average intelligence, he was sent to school in the army to learn electronics and communication equipment. Radios were the central theme to his military experience.

He did his military training in Fort Bowie, Texas, and he recalls quite clearly how freakin' hot it was there in the summer of 1944. As you can see in the above picture, all the men are squinting into the sun and it looks hot. That picture by the way, is a collection of NCO's - Non-Commissioned Officers, apparently evident by the chevrons on the shirts (according to someone who knows more about military life than I). My dad is the 7th soldier from the left on the first row.

According to the photos, which began in December of 1944, after spending time in France, he was stationed in Roetgen, Germany, which is 9 miles southeast of Aachen, Germany, close to the intersection of Belgium and Germany. (Roetgen was one of the first German towns to fall to the allies, as early as September 1944).

And Roetgen lies in the northen part of the Ardennes Forest - and anyone with the briefest knowledge of WWI or II knows that some of the worst battles in either war were fought in that place. Of course, this is the location of the famous Battle of the Bulge, fought in December 1944 to January 1945, with some of the heaviest fighting in the 1st 3 days of the battle.

Being a radio man, my dad was apparently close to HQ, in the rear echelon, and did not suffer the horrors that some of the front line infantrymen did. However, a battle that intense did not spare anyone. My dad recollects, just as the first wave attacked, he was in a farm house at night and an artillery shell scored a direct hit into the house where he and several of his fellow solders were sleeping, and it was a dud! (perhaps it was one of those famous Schindler duds?). In any case, he said that he did not sleep for 3 nights straight during the battle, and recalls as many soldiers have, how the sky was almost darkened by the allied bombers and fighters when the skies cleared.

The 751st was on the front lines of the war in the European theatre. It was the first medium artillery battery to cross the Rhine River, entering Germany as early as October 1944. When the battalion crossed, the commanding officer, Colonel Errington, issued a certificate to all the troops in the battalion, a P.I.R, which stands for Pissed In the Rhine!

He did not suffer any serious physical injuries in the war, but was permanently damaged in one ear by being close to the 155MM howitzers that made up the bulk of the 751st firepower. He said that the ear constantly rang for years after the war. He also received coordinates from the front lines to relay to the howitzer guys in the gun batteries. He even used a computer, known as a Fire Direction Computer, first used in navy ships, but then retrofitted for land use. This was a mechanical computing device to generate a firing solution to aim the gun at an intended target.

I am sure he went to his grave with many an interesting story (especially in Paris and Spa, Belgium!), so there is not much more to report, but the photos themselves do the talking. As I processed the photos, I noticed how over time, from Dec 44 to October 45, the faces of the men looked less stressed and much brighter, in direct contrast to the appearance of the German cities such as Kassel, Frankfurt and parts of Detmold - they looked like a defeated country.

He left the service in December of 45, just after Christmas. He never did go back to St. Johns University, choosing to stay in the family business of delivery fuel oil in St. Albans, NY, a part of Queens, NYC. He attended 2 751st FAB reunions, met my mom just after the 2nd reunion in 1952. They married in 1953, had two kids, moved to the suburbs, and the rest, they say, is history.

(This biography was pulled from a website created by Jerry Servedio's son Philip Servedio to honor his memory. There is more details and photos at http://heartspace.org/ww2/)