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A recent column about Bruno Ablondi in the Journal News tells a wonderful, poignant  story. 

Recollections by Coach Bert Baker, Tom O'Brien, Lee Shaffer and Phyllis Ablondi follow the column.

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From the Rockland County Sports Hall of Fame

Bruno Ablondi

Elected in 1979 ... 1947 Pearl River High graduate ... one of the finest all-round athletes ever to don a Pirate uniform ... All-County in football, basketball and baseball his senior year ... a basketball forward who led his team in scoring four straight years, finishing with 752 points in 64 games ... deadly one-handed jump-shooter in era of two-handed set shots ... a baseball shortstop who batted .368 over four years and made All-County three times ... also fine pitcher who fired a one-hit shutout in Pearl River’s county championship-clinching 8-0 win over Haverstraw in ‘47 ... as a football quarterback, he threw 16 touchdown passes, amassed 2,086 yards and captained Pirates to share of county title in ‘46 ... also starred for the semipro Pearl River Wildcats football team and Pearl River Cubs baseball team ... Ablondi was killed in the Korean War in 1951 at age 23.

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The column on Bruno Ablondi by Bob Baird

link to original article in the Journal News

GIs shared unique bond

By Bob Baird • Journal News Columnist • July 25, 2010

Mario Ablondi often takes the short ride from his home in Pearl River to St. Anthony's Cemetery in Nanuet to visit the grave of his brother, Bruno, who was killed in action in Korea.

On a recent visit, he thought someone had mistakenly left a wood cross decorated with a baseball at his brother's resting place.

But then he found a note and phone number, written in marker, on the back.

  Mario Ablondi visits the grave of his brother Bruno, who was killed in action in the Korean War, at St. Anthony’s Cemetery in Nanuet on Friday. Bruno's grave was recently visited by one of the men from his unit, Benjamin Capua, who left a wood cross with his telephone number almost 60 years after his buddy was killed. (Tania Savayan/The Journal News)

It had been left by Ben Capua, who grew up in the Bronx and had just graduated from Evander Childs High School when he was drafted near the end of World War II.

Almost immediately after Bruno Ablondi graduated in 1947 from Pearl River High School, where he was an All-Rockland County athlete in three sports, he served a year in the Army.

Capua and Ablondi met when they were reservists and served together in Korea after being activated in 1950.

By then, Ablondi was playing both semi-pro football and baseball. Hoping to keep his pitching arm in shape, he found a catcher's mitt aboard their troop transport ship, the Ainsworth, so Capua and others could catch for him. "By the time we were done," Capua says of those sessions, "I couldn't feel my hand."

Capua says his buddy was looking forward to a pro baseball career, perhaps with the Yankees, although Mario Ablondi says nothing had come of his brother's one tryout before Korea erupted.

There was no shortage of volunteers to catch for Ablondi, Capua says. "Everybody loved him. He just had a personality that everyone liked."

By June 1951, Ablondi and Capua had seen much action against North Korean and Chinese forces in the area of the 38th Parallel, the dividing line between the two Koreas. They had been making gains, pushing enemy forces back north of the dividing line.

But on June 2, Capua says, "a little squad of North Koreans snuck up on us and lobbed in grenades." The GIs dove into nearby foxholes.

Bruno Ablondi — who was known as Bruce or Brucie — was mortally wounded. "He got hit with a grenade," Capua says, "and there was no helping him."

The irony was, they were only days from being reassigned from combat.

When that happened, Capua, who in civilian life worked as an embalmer, was assigned to preparing the fallen for transport home.

That was so hard emotionally, he told me in a telephone interview Thursday evening, that he never returned to the funeral business.

Ablondi's remains arrived back in Rockland in October 1951. Ben Capua was home by then, too, and was with the Albondis for Bruno's burial.

In 1979, Ablondi was elected to the Rockland Sports Hall of Fame, praised as one of Pearl River's finest all-around athletes of all time.

Capua, now 83, splits his time between Somers in Northern Westchester and the Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., area.

He's never forgotten being with Ablondi in those last moments of a friendship that had grown so deep that the two men planned to have a double wedding when they returned to the girls they left behind.

Capua worked in his family's construction business, which eventually specialized in stairmaking.

He married his sweetheart, settled in Eastchester and raised three children. The first, daughter Corinne, now lives in Somers.

When their first son was born 52 years ago, the Capuas named him Bruce, for Bruno "Bruce" Ablondi.

Back around Memorial Day, Ben Capua expressed a desire to visit Ablondi's grave, but couldn't recall where it was. Corinne Capua Storms spotted a mention of Ablondi in my column last year about Rockland's Eagle Chapter of the Korean War Veterans honoring the 27 Rockland residents killed in Korea to mark the anniversary of the war's end, as they will do again today at Onderdonk Cemetery at Rockland Community College.

She called, wondering if I might know where they could find Ablondi's grave.

I pointed her to Rockland Veterans Burial Commissioner Tony Lombardi, who worked with Eagle Chapter President Dan Zevola and told her Ablondi is buried at St. Anthony's Cemetery.

Just before Father's Day, Bruce Capua accompanied his dad to the grave of his namesake, leaving the wood cross he fashioned at his Stillwell Stairs business in Goldens Bridge. His brother, Robert, owns SRI Stairbuilders, in Mount Vernon.

The visit, Ben Capua says, "made me cry," thinking about what they had been through together and the potential lost in Ablondi's death.

Mario Ablondi, who is 86, has spoken with Bruce Capua since finding the cross, but has only traded answering machine messages with his brother's wartime buddy. He says he's touched that almost 60 years later, someone remembers Bruno and cared enough to visit his grave.

"They must have had some strong connection," Mario Ablondi says of his brother and the man who never forgot him.

"Sometimes, two people meet and they get very close," Ben Capua says of his connection with Bruno Ablondi. "It was a real brotherly love."

Reach Bob Baird at Rbaird@Lohud.com or 845-578-2463. His column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday.

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Coach Bert Baker's comment - email to Tom O'Brien

Tom,

Can't tell you how appreciative Sally and I are of you sending us that article from Bob Baird about Bruno. He was the best friend I ever had, and because of him that is how I met Sally. He went with her best friend for the last two yrs. HS and I met Sal we all dated and hung around together for all that time.

Bruno & I were buddies all thru HS- played all 3 sports together at PR and we were always together--we had one other buddy Halsey Dunham, who was a year ahead of us,but we still hung together til Halsey got drafted and he has since passed away. The same as Baird,our first son is named Bruce Albert---in his memory. He is so right about the kind of person he was.

I am also glad to know what happened in Korea,gives me a closure.Iknow of so much of the same when I was there. I think I knew the area where he was. I have always been sorry that I was not able to get the USMC to allow me to get home for his funeral, but they said I was due to go to Korea and I couldn't miss the preparation.

I was able to make the presentation in '79 for his County Hall of Fame. After 30 years of High School athletics and coaching, I know he was the best all = around HS athelete I ever saw. He went to Syracuse U for a try-out for a scholarship for football-but he told me they only looked at the big guys, and he never got a chance to throw or run from scrimmage, and he came home. I was going to go to Cortland at that time and I wanted him to call there and see if he could get a chance, but he got playing with the "town " [Lee Schaefer was the coach] and he thought he might be able to play well and try for the next year [of course that's only my speculation].

I am glad that you remember him when growing up as all the kids loved him and he knew so many of them.I am going to write to Bob Baird and tell him how great his remembrance was.

We just had lunch with Bob Brennan and Marcy last week and keep in occasional touch. He looks pretty good, Tom, considering all the health problems he has had ,he has a good attitude.

It has been a real hot summer, and it makes it hard to do a lot outside. The Matterns were nice people I remember, they had the meat mkt. next to Umlands and Mel used to come around to the field. Say hello to Joe Marsico, another great athlete. I have to get in touch with Mario (Gitch) Ablondi. Sal and I hear from sister, Flora in Syracuse.

Tom, I appreciate your kind thought. Thanks. Best to wife, Sandy. You are a good ambassador of Pearl River. Take care of yourself.

God Bless

Coach Bert

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