Interview with Edward Parseghian |
Below is an interview I (Bob Meli) had with Edward Parseghian on Let us never forget the soldiers sacrifice. Introduction I was made aware of Edward Parseghian living in New Milford by Tom Crispino, a life long resident of New Milford who was Ed’s mailman, and knew I researched veterans who attended Hackensack High School. Tom Crispino told Edward Parseghian about the project and Ed Parseghian said he would like to be interviewed. I had set up an interview with Edward Parseghian in 2007, but our schedules kept conflicting until 2009; Ed became ill and I put off calling him figuring my opportunity to speak to him had been lost. Then, Tom Crispino mentioned that Ed was doing well and that he felt very disappointed he hadn’t been able to do the interview. Tom encouraged me to call him and I was grateful I was still able to speak to him. I was anxious to call him, but with life’s many twists and turns I never did. Finally, I just put my tape recorder in my truck and one Saturday morning I went by at 8:00 am. Being older, I thought Edward and his wife would be awake, but they were sleeping and I woke them up. Once they knew it was me, Ed and his wonderful wife came down and asked me in. They were two vibrant, engaged, and a very active couple, and you would never think they were in their 80’s. After talking for awhile we agreed I would come back and record our interview. Here is what Let us never forget the soldiers sacrifice. INTERVIEWWhat year did you graduate High School? “Well, again, that is a long story because I had left high school for one year because my dad had heart problems and he had a jewelry store in the city and I had to go to the city and work. I was supposed to graduate in 1942. The store was in Manhattan on 63rd street and my dad wanted me to go back to high school to graduate. The first six months I ran the store myself, then my dad started feeling better and wanted me to finish high school. My dad and I worked out an agreement with Hackensack High school, since I had lost my senior year, where I only had to take three classes of the major subjects the following year. I had played sports and stuff, I was a pretty good soccer player back then, and so I didn’t have to take physical education or the art classes, etc. So in the fall of 1942, I would drive my dad to work in the morning because he couldn’t take public transportation because of the up and down and walking involved, and I would stay there and set up everything in the morning, then at around 12:00 noon I would come back to Hackensack by public transportation and take my three classes in the afternoon till around 3:15. I would go back to the city by bus again and help my dad until closing around 6:00. Then I would drive him home, when we were done, with the family car I had driven in the morning. In the middle of that year, December of 1942, my dad passed away, so consequently I am in a class with my brother who is a year and a half younger then me, and so we graduated together in June of 1943. I asked Ed Parseghian, Did you know Lee D’Arminio? Oh yes, He had a cousin, who I thought was named Armond, who was very good friends with my brother Armond in school. When were you born? I was born on Thanksgiving in Bronx NY in 1922 at home. I am 88 years old. I commented on how great he looked and he replied “most people think I am much younger, like in my sixties.” Who did you serve with and when? Well I was supposed to go into the service in January of 1943, but because of my dad’s illness, he passed away in December of 1942, I was still in school and I had to work in the store. The Army gave me a six month deferment to close up the store take care of business. So, I was drafted in July of '43 along with my brother and other guys we knew. We (Ed and Armond) were drafted on the same day. We went to Westwood. Everyone would gather at the firehouse, and from there we went to Newark, then to Fort Dix. We eventually went to Fort Bragg for basic training. Then, we shipped overseas. Did you and your brother serve together throughout the war? Yes, we stayed together for the entire war. I reacted surprised by saying ‘really’? and he replied Yes, we went to a replacement center after we shipped to Italy. (Note: a replacement center is where you would go to replace the men who had been killed or wounded in combat) First we stopped in North Africa, then to Italy to a replacement center, then this was in January of 1944. Did you two work the same gun? “Yes we worked on the same artillery piece together.” Assuming that the military tried to separate relatives I asked Ed Parseghian if he knew Henri Reichelt? Oh yes, I knew Reichelt well. Knowing why I asked the question Ed continued. He died with the five Sullivan Brothers on the Juneau what’s interesting is that even though this happened it wasn’t that uncommon to see brothers serving together. As a matter of fact we had a pair of brothers in our outfit before we joined the outfit, and the one brother was killed in Italy and yes when we were getting ready to ship to Anzio around January 20, 1944, We got down to the ship and the Major said we are going to split you two guys up and we said what do you mean we’ve been together all this time etc. Then the Major said well it came down from Washington that brothers cannot serve together so we had quite a ‘ta do’ with the Major so finally he said “OH OK you want to stay together” and we said “Yeh we want to stay together”, So when we were on the LCI (Landing Craft for Infantry), even though we were artillery we were meeting up with our outfit and gun, so anyway we are going into Anzio Beach and the Major happened to be behind me, The Major taps me on the shoulder and he said “I guess you guys want to get it together ah both you guys want to get it together” I thought it was nice of him because he said it in a friendly way and I said –“Well we’ll take our chances” and we were very fortunate we were very lucky we came out of it. Well however to regress before we shipped over we were stationed at camp Patrick Henry Virginia, than we were in Maryland came home for Christmas. They weren’t going to let us but then they did and then we went back to Maryland I cannot remember the big base there, then we shipped down to Camp Patrick Henry where we boarded ships there to go overseas. On our trip over our ship had a few submarine scares then we went through the Gibraltar Straight into the Mediterranean. We landed in North Africa, was in Iran for a few days. From there we went to Italy and to the replacement center. The first outfit we were with in Italy was a Mechanized unit at Cassino. We were only with this outfit, it was a armored outfit, for a short time when we were T-Oed out (Table of Organization center) all the outfits were getting hit real hard and they needed replacements and so we were sent back to the replacement center and then the next day we were assigned to the 194th which was in Italy and prepared for the Anzio invasion. So Cassino came first? Yes, Cassino came first. Actually the area of Cassino was reached (not taken) by the 194th before we were with the outfit. In January though, we went to the Naples area as a staging area and then around January 20 we make the Anzio invasion with the 194th. Now four months later on May 24 or 25 they had not penetrated Cassino they had not done so after all this time. They had not allowed the Abbey to be bombed after all this time finally they said go ahead and bomb the Abby so on May 24 or 25 they decide to bomb the Abbey and what happened was – Now we are living underground in these huts in caves from January 20, till May 25 they started bombing and what they did was bring planes from England and they bombed the Abbey for 24 hours straight and then they had planes from Italy take off from Foggio and they bombed it and then somewhere in Turkey they bombed it. In a 24 hour period they bombed it constantly. After the bombing, we mounted an offensive at Anzio and they tried to mount an offensive from Cassino but now after the bombing the Abbey became an even better defensive position because of all the rubble. Now underneath the Abbey were caves or catacombs and the Germans had put tracks in the caves and they had artillery guns rolled out and rained artillery fire down and it was impossible to penetrate Cassino. After we mounted our offense at Anzio we threaten to cut off the supply lines to Cassino so as we are making inroads they see this and the Germans withdrew. We never really actually took Cassino because it was such a strong defensive position, they withdrew and we took it over. Where did you go next? After Anzio we went to Rome. We took Rome on June 6, 1944 same day as Normandy invasion After we went through Cedeiavachia we went to Lavorno which is Piza where the leaning Tower of Piza is, and we took a bad beating there—There was resistance all a long the way. Did the Italians put up much resistance when fighting? No not really they were lovers more then fighters they really did not want to fight. This was no cake walk though. I had two set of boots that were always soaked and wet, we lived in caves for four months. There was fighting all a long the way and constant artillery bombing while we were on the beachhead and elsewhere as we moved through Italy fighting the Germans. After Chividivaccia we went to Piza they were directing the artillery shelling using the leaning tower as an observation point and we wanted to bomb it but the Army wouldn’t let us. We said (soldiers in the field) lets blow the tower up its falling down anyway so a couple of shells and be done with it! But unless you get the order. The Army never let us do it. I know it is a Wonder of the world and a monument but at that point in time I could care less! Guys are getting killed all around me and guys are getting killed next to me, they are much more important then any monument. Buildings and things don’t mean the same in war you loose any sense of value for things when your life is on the line. I am sure other guys felt the same way about blowing it up I mean you could see 8 or 10 miles down the beach from that 8 or 10 story tower. They pulled us out of there when they were getting ready for the invasion of Southern France. We went back down to Naples and then we prepared for the invasion of Southern France. Were you involved with the invasion? Yes we made the invasion I landed on an LSD. We made the invasion at Marseille France and there was very little resistance we were able to land a lot of equipment. This I believe was in September, in the fall sometime. It was raining constantly trench foot became a problem. Mr. D’Arminio had a problem with that also. I still have a problem with my feet from that. So we went through the Ronne Valley a lot of things happened a long the way and through Leone Valley getting into winter and we met Patton coming across from Normandy his Army is going east and we are going North and we met right around the time of the battle of the Bulge. We are now with the Seventh Army, in Italy we had been with the fifth army. We ended up with five battle stars on our resume. Late December the battle of the Bulge is going on and our Army joined Patton’s army and we took a defensive position to protect Patton’s rear and he swung up to help support the troops at the Battle of the Bulge. We were in a town called Seegan where we took up the defensive position to protect his rear and it was so cold! Ice was everywhere. It was one of the coldest winters in fifty years. Then we went down across the Remagen Bridge and into Bavaria and went as far as Burgess garden area. Where were you at wars end? We were on the Czechoslovakia border then the Army pulled us back and then we did occupation guard duty in the city of Oberramagaw (This city name is how it sounded when Ed talked to me. I was unable to find name similar so I spelled as is) did you hear of the city? No. The city of Oberramagaw is where they have a religious pageant and the entire town becomes a stage. They do this every ten years and they still do this today. The city is in the Mountains of Bavaria just beautiful that’s where we did part of our occupation time. Did you come across any concentration camps? Oh Yah that’s right, we were the first troops to liberate Dachau! We liberated Dachau! Did you enjoy going to Hackensack ? Yes, very much! I played soccer and then everybody had no money to speak of and I worked in the locker room. I had played soccer up until high school but didn’t get to play in high school because I took that job, Howie Bollermann got it for me because he knew my brother Richard who was a year older then me who had played basketball for Bollerman. Richard was not in the service. I got 11 dollars a month at that job. Howie Bollermann was the Basketball coach and Stienhilber was the Athletic Director and Gebhard was the football coach. My brother Armond was a very good soccer player. James Lacey was a very good soccer player did you know him? Only from what I read and his service was amazing, why do you ask? Well, Jimmy Lacey was a loose cannon type guy, not focused at all, and to read what he did is amazing to me. I couldn’t get over what he accomplished. Maybe you need to be a loose cannon to do what he did. Yes maybe you do, Maybe you really do! but for him to become that focused, you would have never expected that if you had known him then. Of coarse Dennis Lacey was in my class and that was so sad. How did you and your brothers' trip back home after wars end go? Well we landed in Boston on December 20 1945, than we get shipped down to Fort Dix on December 22, 1945. We are supposed to stay in camp till after the holidays. All the guys haven’t been home in over two years and so we get the officers to let us go because its Christmas time. My brother Armond and I arrive at the Hackensack bus station and Carlton Brower picked us up and we got home at 5:30 p.m. Christmas eve 1945 and my mom, Haig, Maas, Richard, my sister Margo, and younger brother Vahan were there to greet us. George was still in the service at the time. After the war I used the 300 dollar bonus and GI bill to just settle in. Then I worked as a soda jerk at Carlson’s luncheonette in New Milford. After that I worked manufacturing jewelry watch cases. George and I opened the Jewelry store on Main Street in Hackensack across from the Fox Theater in Hackensack in 1947 and stayed open until 1972. George, Maas, and I started a building business also in 1964 and do well. So it was a trip we didn’t pay for, but it was worth taking, different circumstances it would have been better, but Uncle Sam says we want to send you to Europe. Written by: |