Corporal+Vincent+Fauci

Army

 * 100th Infantry Division **

Earned a Purple Heart
Mr. Fauci was born in Brooklyn, New York in May 22, 1923. His family moved out of Brooklyn to a home in Long Island in Queens. Back then in 1924, '25, that was all farmland and it is all part of the city. He had a very good childhood. The Depression hit the family in 1929 when they lost their home. They had to move from one place to another until his father could find work. They struggled through the depression but his father and mother would not let him go to work. He was educated in the New York City system and back in the 1930s and 40s, the New York City school systems were considered the best in the country. Mr. Fauci moved out of the city in 1950. media type="custom" key="4512950" " I had just started attending night school at Brooklyn College to become a mechanical engineer. I was working days and going to school at night. 6 months later I was drafted." media type="custom" key="4512954"media type="custom" key="4512960" align="right"

"I can remember the boat ride; we were aboard ship for 22 days. I thought I was in the navy instead of the army. Believe it or not, I never got seasick. And the reason it took 22 days is because we had to take a meandering route to avoid submarines and we went through the straights of Gibraltar, through the Mediterranean, across the coast of North Africa, and then across the Mediterranean to Southern France. Our division landed in Marce and we walked up the, I think it was the Roan River Valley to Alsace Lorain where the battle was. We ran into a few skirmishes along the way. By that time, it was the beginning of the Battle of the Bulge and we didn’t know where we were. And this was I guess in late 1945."

"All I can remember is the 88 mm German shells buzzing over us and tearing apart the forest. We went through the I lived in a foxhole, didn’t have a hot meal for 3 months. Then they came up and gave us a Christmas dinner. We all got sick because we hadn’t eaten so much food in months. We gorged ourselves and paid for it. Right after A month after that I was wounded. Voage Mountain and the forests of France, which were beautiful before they were bombarded by various attacks. We had various problems. I saw a lot of my comrade's die along side of me or get wounded and that was the way things were. Christmas that’s when we saw thicker combat in the Bulge."

The Battle of the Bulge, fought over the winter months of 1944 – 1945, was the last major Nazi offensive against the Allies in World War Two. The battle was a last ditch attempt by Hitler to split the Allies in two in their drive towards Germany and destroy their ability to supply themselves.


 * || 

Mr. Fauci addresses the students at the WWII Memorial in Washington, D.C. || ||  " I know during those battles I was wounded and sent back to Paris for surgery. From Paris I was shipped to South Hampton, England. And from that time and the date I was wounded, I guess was January of 1945 because I spent eleven months in various hospitals in France, England and the U.S. Finally when I was discharged from the U.S. I was reassigned to special services, which was responsible for all camp entertainment. I was reassigned as an entertainment specialist and like the army, you're never assigned into anything where you had any experience. "

I was in a hospital in France and captain came in and told me he was going to give me the Purple Heart. Gave me this box with the Purple Heart in it and said, "Son I think you got the million dollar wound." I said, "I hope so." The kid next to me said, "What's the million dollar wound?" And I said, "How long have you been in the service? Everyone knows what that is. The million-dollar wound means your going back home."

After returning to the states, Mr. Fauci decided to attend Adelphi University in Garden City, which was an all-girls- college, being opening to men. He was one of the first groups of males accepted into the college. They started night courses, so he worked from 8 in the morning until 4 in the afternoon, and went to college from 5 pm in the afternoon until 10 at night. He earned a bachelors degree in chemistry.

Mr. Fauci shares his reaction to visiting the WWII Memorial. media type="custom" key="4512966" align="right"

Full transcript of Mr. Vincent Fauci's interview: