In the interview, when a person begins to speak, it will begin with the abbreviations below to indicate who is speaking: Bob Meli—B.M. |
B. M.; Where did you leave from in Hackensack ? T.T.; I left from Hackensack on a side street by the courthouse. B.M.; How did your Mom and Dad feel about you leaving? T.T.; Well my mother and father as all the other Italian parents were crying like we were going off to die, everyone was sad that day, not a happy day. Us as young guys we looked at it as an adventure, it was the first time I was ever on a bus. I was never on a train or bus before. I thought I was going to the end of the world. I was only going to Fort Dix in N.J. I left on the bus with a bunch of guys from N.Y. and N.J. B.M.; Who from Hackensack was at Fort Dix ? T.T.; The Ricatto's and the Zisa's and the Bonamo's. B.M.; Were any Urato's there? T.T.; Ah, I met chief Urato there, he was already there, and a matter of fact he gave me my uniform. B.M.; Was Cliff Coyman there? T.T.; He was there probably 3 or 4 years before me. It was hard to know who was there unless you met them. After Fort Dix I went to Fort Eustace Virginia and I got into Triple A Anti Aircraft Gunnery and they had these giant things they looked like an ice cream cone and they would pickup the sound of an airplane and it was synchronized with the gun. They didn't have radar than and you would move the gun according to this sound thing. It was very crude not very accurate. B.M. How long were you in training? T.T.; About 4 months. B.M.; Did you go overseas then? T.T.; No,No,! Soon our training on anti aircraft became obsolete and they came out with radar. I then left camp Eustace and went to a camp in Boston . When we got to Boston we were in the center of Boston in a park. We went to Cambridge after that, where the college is and we were stationed right on the University campus. Then we went to camp McCoy in Wisconsin with the 76 th Division. By this time I'm no longer in Triple A Anti Air Craft, now I'm in the infantry and we're learning how to attack pillboxes, throw grenades into windows etc. It was hard training in Wisconsin . I liked Wisconsin very much. We weren't very far from the Mississippi River . B.M.; How long were you in Wisconsin ? T.T.; Well its hard to tell time then, it seemed like a long time. Then we were sent to Camp Stuart Georgia. The Army does things like this, they put you on the slowest train in the world and it took us ages to get to Wisconsin and then ages by train to get to Georgia . B.M.; Why were you sent to Georgia ? T.T.; Don't ask me why! There seemed to be no significance to going to Georgia . We left camp in Georgia and went to Camp Shank in N.Y. State right near Nyack N. Y. and there we were under guard. Then you knew you were going over seas. They had you in your barracks under guard and if you had to go to the bathroom a guard would escort you to the latreen so you wouldn't try to escape. Believe me, this stuff in the movies, everybody wants to go after the enemy stuff, forget that movie stuff, they had you they weren't letting you go. (laughter) Up until then I had never had a furlough. We were a family of 12 and my mother brought 15 children into the world. I had only been home once from Fort Eustace in over a year and a half, I new I was going overseas and I wanted to see my mom before I left so I escaped. When you had guard duty you would sleep on top of the bed in your uniform instead of getting into bed and going to sleep. So when I had guard duty I put my shoes at the bottom of my bed with a pillow under a blanket so it looked like I was dressed and when I went to the Latreen I just didn't come back. I was the guard that night, we all got guard duty. I came out on route 303 on the highway and I was hitch hiking my way back to Hackensack , it was a Saturday. A Chevrolet picked me up, a 1936 Chevy a matter of fact. They were Italians, they hadn't been in the country to long and they said, “where are you going” and I said “ Hackensack ” and they said that's where they were going. You have to remember everybody from Closter to Hillsdale to Tenafly, New Milford, everybody shopped in Hackensack and these people were coming from Norwood . They dropped me off at the corner of State Street and Main Street where the Fox Theater use to be. I started walking down Main Street like I was walking on air! Everybody is looking at you because I was in uniform and the countries in the thick of the war. Finally I reached the house and I saw my Mom and naturally she cried because she new I wasn't going to see her again for a long time maybe never. Now I have to go back to camp and sneak in. B.M.; So you came home to visit your mother? T.T.; Yes, my mom and dad. I saw her in the morning and I left about 1:30 at night. My brother Frankie drove me back to Camp Shank on 303 in Nyack. It's pitch dark and I don't know where I am so I sneak in the way I sneaked out and all the barracks look alike but I found my barracks, so I go to the latreen and go back to my barracks and my shoes and everything are still there. They don't care when you're sneaking back in, it's if they catch you when your sneaking out that it's a problem. (laughter) The next day we went to N.Y.C. and boarded a troop ship called the Mauritania , the second largest ship in the world to the Queen Mary. We crossed the Atlantic and landed in Liverpool . I don't know how long it took us but an interesting fact was that a whale followed us almost all the way there. We got to Liverpool at 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning, everything's dark and they put us on trucks and took us to a camp. We stayed there a few days in barracks. Then we went on a small ship across the English Channel and I had a premonition that something was going to happen, it was so strong. We were packed like sardines in a hole on this ship. We are stacked four hammocks high on each side and all the other soldiers are laughing at me because I have all my equipment on, helmet boots gun, dressed like I was walking. About three in the morning the ship just jolted like it hit a mountain and started to shake violently and the lights went out. I was the first guy to hit the deck, all the other guys were undressed, but I was ready. B.M.; I guess they had to get dressed? T.T.; No, they didn't bother getting dressed. I'm almost ashamed to say it but I had my May West on. You know what that is don't you. B.M.; No Tom what's that? T.T.; It's your life jacket! That's how sure I was something was going to happen. B.M. You knew something was going to happen? T.T.; I knew I wanted a life jacket on I just knew something was going to happen. Well anyway when I hit the deck the lights were still on and I got to the steps, which had about 20 steps and a platform with an iron railing, and then a three foot wide door at the top. There was this guy in front of me I hadn't seen since camp Eustace in Virginia and he had been at camp Shank N.Y. also. He had been the cook, kind of a wise ass, yelling all the time. Well he ran so fast, I still see it like it happened yesterday, his feet were going no place fast. He was at the same step because he couldn't get his foot up to the next step fast enough and he kept tripping. He was like a mouse on a treadmill. He was in the same spot trying to go up those steps on his shins after awhile. (laughter) He was in front of me and when I saw that, I thought of the fire in 1941 in Boston the Coconut Grove fire, a very famous fire and a lot of soldiers and sailors were at this nightclub on New Years Eve. I don't know how many people actually died in the fire because the doors didn't open out they only opened in. All the paper decorations were up which was so flammable and that caught fire and I believe hundreds died. My sister Millie always read the paper out loud to my mother because she couldn't read or write. I always remember her saying that if the people hadn't panicked and just stepped back from the doors so you could open them everyone may have been saved. When she was done reading that I remember my sister looking at me and at that moment on the ship I remembered her looking at me! At that moment I thought we're going to get killed going up these steps. The pressure on me from the rush of guys behind me built quickly. I'm looking at the guy on his shins in front of me and I was second behind him. I was so scared of the water, the Navy tried to get me to enlist but I was petrified of drowning in the ocean. At this point though I was more afraid of getting stampeded and crushed. The pressure was like 100 elephants going up those steps so I grabbed the two handrails and braced myself. I made myself like a human brace and I held everyone back, at that point the lights went out. When its dark and you can't see people naturally get scared. I saw a lot of brave acts, soldiers will usually tell you they were too stupid or too young to be scared, but when its dark the bravest person can become scared. Guys started screaming trying to get out, all hell was breaking loose and I'm trying to hold all these guys back. I began to scream like I was in charge, no one saw me or could tell my rank in the dark so everyone listened. I said, “Everything is going to be alright. The lights are going to go on in a few minutes” I was B.S.in, myself as much as everybody else. I kept saying “the lights are going to go on,” and the pressure began to ease off. They thought I was an officer and I just kept saying everything would be all right and sure enough in about 5 minutes the lights did go on. The guy on his shins in front of me was so scared he was lying on the steps right in front of me. Well everything calmed down once the lights went on. The next day I asked some of the Navy personnel what had happened and no one seemed to know for sure. The channel was pretty save to cross at that point although the Germans earlier in the war controlled the channel so there was always a watchful eye, because they had sunk so many ships with the U2 Boats. In my opinion our ship may have thought there was an U2 boat nearby and they threw a depth charge overboard at the German U2 boat. A depth charge is like a 55-gallon drum of explosives they throw over the side of the ship to hit a sub patrolling beneath your ship. I was told they could knock out the electrical current on the ship momentarily. The next day we landed on Omaha beach. It was a couple of months after the invasion. You could imagine what those poor guys went through, nobody was shooting at us. The ship couldn't go ashore. We were about a half-mile from shore. Our ship was rocking back and forth and we had to climb down those rope ladders on the side of the ship. As the ship rocks the rope sways and is very difficult to climb down. It's never quite like when you practiced it at camp state side because there was no ship swaying. Our backpacks weighed about 50lbs plus which made it more difficult climbing down the ladder. There was a very timid guy with glasses in front of me, he was very timid. The guy was scared as we got on the rope ladder. I tried to help him. I kept saying, I'll help you, I'll help you. The officers said to leave him alone they would get a harness for him. Then I got on the ladder after him and said to myself I need that harness too! The Ladder just swayed so much and for everybody it was hard just getting down the ladder and into the small landing boats. Well anyway once we got down the ladder we got in the small landing boat and got to Omaha beach. We went up the same cliffs you see in the movies and then we reached the top and it was just a sea of mud, maybe 2 or 3 feet deep. B.M.; Had the beach been cleaned up by then? T.T.; Mostly, but the steel obstructions were still there. All the mines and booby traps had been cleared out. We walked through these towns; small clean towns and then we reached our camp. They would name camps after cigarettes and my camp was Camp Chesterfield in France . B.M.; How times have changed. Were the people grateful when you went through there towns? T.T.; Oh yes! They were waving and very grateful. One thing the German and French people would say about Americans, they never walk. The Americans all have trucks. The French and German People never saw so much equipment. The people were very grateful. Well anyway we left Camp Chesterfield in France and went straight to Holland . We were going up there to help protect Antwerp , which at the time was the largest seaport in Europe . Our ships brought a lot of our supplies through this seaport; it was a very important city. If the Germans took that city they could have strangled our supply lines. That's why the Germans fought so hard at the end. Anyway we went through Belgium and Holland . I wore all my gear when we were traveling through Holland . We were transported by trucks and you would have to sleep standing up sometimes because we were packed into the trucks so tightly. We reached our destination about 4 or 5 a.m. and they start calling our names when we got to Holland . As they started calling our names we started jumping off the trucks. Well I hear them yell Trobiano so I jump off the truck and I'm half asleep and I hear someone say, “whose name is Trobiano, I know him!” When you were in the service and I came from N.J., and I met a guy from Pennsylvania we were like neighbors. To here a guy say he knows Trobiano and I'm in Holland I wanted to know who he was. So I laid on the side of the road and I just fell asleep right there that's how tired we were. Well morning came and I felt the warmth of the sun on my face, and now I'm curious, I think that somebody said they new my name, so I start asking around. I was no longer with my division. I became a replacement, they called you a ‘Repo Depot' wherever the supply of men was low they would send you. Anyway, I didn't know anyone in Holland , so I really wanted to know who this guy was who knew my name. I felt like an orphan when I was there, so every so often I would ask somebody and around 10:30 a guy says, “there was a guy who said he new your name.” So I wasn't dreaming, I said to the guy “ who was it? He said “the Major.” In the Army you don't see a Major often, usually a lieutenant or maybe a captain. He is higher in rank so you very rarely see a Major. So I said where is he? He didn't know, so I kept a lookout for him. Sure enough I see him and I went up to him and said, “Did you call out my name last night, I'm Trobiano?” He says “ Your Trobiano, who is Helen Trobiano to you.” I said, “she's my sister.” Then he says, “what's Mike Trobiano to you?” I said, “that's my brother.” I was so happy just to meet somebody from home it made me feel good. B.M.: Who was the Major? T.T.; His name was Marino and he lived in Hackensack . B.M.; Did you know him? T.T.; No, he was older then me I was only 3 yrs old when he was in H.S. about a 15year difference. He had gone to Broadway school so he new my family. When we met in Holland I had asked him where he lived and he said in Maywood . So after the War, when I'm a civilian, I'm at Costa's store playing cards with The Costa brothers and my brother and I mentioned I had looked in Maywood on there honor roll sign which was on the corner of Passaic ave. and Maywood Ave. and I thanked God I saw his name and there was no K.I.A. star next to it. Awhile later I found out he worked at a golf course called Elmwood country club. It was located at the end of Rte 4 just before you go over the bridge into Paterson ; it used to be East Paterson now it's Elmwood Park . B.M.; I didn't Know there ever was a golf course there. T.T.; Oh yes, well anyway, he worked at the country club. One night, me, the Costa brothers, my brother Freddie, and Louie the barber, all went to the country club and the Major is a bartender. He's a Major and now he's a bartender. (laughter) B.M.; From Major to bartender! T.T.; I go up to the bar and say “ Marina ,” he says “yah” I said “Trobiano, I met you in Holland . He remembered then and then well he new my brother and talked to him most of the night but anyway that's how I made contact with the Major after the war. B.M.; What went on in Holland ? T.T.; Well, when we went to Holland it was short and fast. We went right up to the front line. To get to the front line we had to walk and we had to go over these dikes. We marched all night long over; I don't know 20 or 30 of them. Most guys had their gear off and just walked through the water, but that made you feel so uncomfortable, so I kept all my gear on and kept jumping over the waterways. I jumped over about two dozen but they started to get wider and your traction was so poor because of the rich soil I started to fall in and get wet. When you walked through the water it would sometimes get up to your nose and you would hold your rifle above your head, then when you reached the other side the guy on shore would pull you up. When I finally fell in I felt like I weighed 300 hundred pounds with my backpack on an everything. Finally we stopped and you just go to sleep your so tired right on the side of the road. Your body heat and sun dry your clothes on you. You could see the steam coming off your clothes. I'm damp, wet and cold and it's the later part of October (1944), the next day, and this guy I called Pennsylvania , is hanging around with me. He followed me around like a little puppy dog. I see this small fire with about 7 G.I.s around it across this field so I say to Pennsylvania lets go by the fire. Pennsylvania says, “ I'm not going you're a target out there.” I say “ I'm going, my feet are wet I'm damp and freezing.” So I start walking and once I got about 50 feet away he changed his mind and ran after me. We get to the fire and I take off my shoes and socks to dry them off. I wasn't there for more then 5 minutes and I just didn't feel right being there. These Texan's or guys from the south are laughing and carrying on slapping each other on the back and having a good time. I turn to Pennsylvania and say, “lets go.” Now he says “ no, it's warm I want to stay.” I say “ I couldn't drag you here now you want to stay, well I'm leaving.” Now I'm arguing with him until I finally say “I'm leaving” and I started walking away. I didn't get but 20 feet and he got up and went with me because he saw I meant it. So as we started going back to where we came from we had to cross these railroad tracks in front of us about 100 feet. I always think of the railroad tracks on Green Street and Lodi Street where you have to go up and then down. We got over the tracks and there was some tree covering just ahead when this Spitfire I call it, which is an American plane, came down firing. When a gun goes off in the air it sounds 3 times louder then on the ground and its nose diving and firing at the guys around that fire he just cut these guys up. B.M.; Was it friendly fire? T.T.; I don't know? Till this day I don't know? Maybe it wasn't a spitfire. I had to learn our planes sound and identify its shadow when I was training in triple A, because they don't want you shooting your own planes down. So anyway it hits those guys and a couple of them survived but it was bad. The plane started coming out of the dive and you know the sound of a hammer hitting an iron beam, that ringggg, bullets are hitting the tracks, you talk about your ass flying. I ran so fast, and you can't dig a foxhole deep in Holland because it fills up with water and I dive into an existing foxhole. I can't get my ass low enough. I was only 118 pounds. I'm not ashamed to say I was trying to make the sign of the cross while I'm trying to get every inch of my body in that foxhole. You think of God in situations like that right away. In a situation like that its not like you can defend yourself one on one, your helpless. You cry out to your mother and God because you are defenseless. After the plane fired we got up out of those foxholes and ran to the trees. We hid in the tree area until the plane left. After that we moved up to the front lines and I got hit. There was a Mexican soldier who was from Arizona or New Mexico and I called him Poncho. Anyway we are on this ridge and he is along side of me and I say Poncho and I grab his arm and put my other hand around his shoulder to ask him something at that point his head turned towards me and he had a bullet right in the middle of his forehead. That's when you realize what's going on! I was just talking to him. Then I moved forward down this dike area and that's when I got hit with shrapnel in my left leg. I started going back then hopping on one leg and I remember going through this dike area and there was a dead horse in the water. I needed clean water to take this pill the army gave you if you got hit, I think this was an antibiotic. Anyway this pill is in a pouch that's like glued to you and wouldn't you know I lost mine, but another guy gave me his. I kept hopping and dragging my leg to get back until I reached this bridge. It wasn't a big bridge, maybe 30 to 40 feet. But you couldn't cross it because the Germans booby-trapped it. I had to swing across like monkey bars when you were a kid. There was a jeep on the other side with 3 or 4 other guys. I went to a hospital in Belgium and then a hospital in Paris France and then to England . After they fixed my leg up they sent me back to France and then to Germany . By then the war was over B.M.; When you went back what did you do? T.T.; When I returned we traveled down the Seine River , a beautiful river in France . On that trip I heard the news that President Roosevelt had died. Everyone was crying, soldiers and officers were very saddened by the news. B.M.; Was their combat going on then? T.T.; Yes, but it was in Germany then. The war was only a few months away from being over. B.M.; So they fixed you up and sent you back? T.T.; Yes, but in a non combat roll. I guess I could have been sent back into combat but I wasn't. During this time I stayed in a beautiful little town in France called Juilly. I went there only a couple of years ago by the way. B.M.; Why? T.T.; I always wanted to go back there before I died and so I visited. It was a small town only about 300 hundred people 4dogs and a chicken. There was a dance there every weekend we were there during the war and we stayed in a mansion for a few months. It was in this town of Juilly France when I heard the war had ended. A Priest came down the church steps about 9:30 a.m. yelling the news and I just started dancing for joy with him. B.M.; Did you go to Germany during the occupation after the wars end? T.T.; Yes, we left Juilly France headed for Germany . I went to Manheim Germany . B.M.; Did you see people who were in the concentration camps? T.T.; Oh yes! I saw them walking along the roads. I saw people with there bones showing, oh God they were in bad shape. The S.S. was bad, really bad. B.M.; How did that make you feel towards the Germans? T.T.; Many people don't know or forget this but the U.S. Army issued a rule or order saying no fraternization with the German people. The U.S. was so angry with the Germans for what they had done to the people there, that they issued this order. You weren't aloud to talk to anybody not even the girls. You better be asking for directions or something like that or you could get court marshaled. That ended rather quickly because it was almost impossible to enforce. I had no real animosity after awhile. One of my jobs in France was as a driver who would pickup the German prisoners from the stockades and during the day I would drop them off at various places where they would clean hotels, wash clothes, cook, etc. I have a good story about when I was driving. I had two guards from another country on the back of the truck guarding the Germans. I would drive a few blocks and drop 4or5 German Soldiers off to work and then do the same thing at the next stop, just like you were delivering milk. Every time I stopped I'd hear this roar of laughter from the Germans. After a couple more times I said what the hell could be so funny. The Germans were laughing so hard I decided to get out of the truck at the next stop and see what was so funny. I get out and I see the two guards handing their rifles to the German prisoners so they could jump down off the truck. The guards new the guns weren't loaded but the Germans didn't. The war was over so nobody cared, but they were still prisoners, it was hysterical, I'm laughing, the Germans are laughing, it was so funny. The Germans are looking at me and they can't stop laughing. Everybody was just glad the war was over, so no one was going to start anything. That's a true story! B.M. Why weren't the guns loaded? T.T. Bob, I think the only time I got a loaded gun was when we went to the front lines. When we were on guard duty behind the lines are guns were not loaded unless in a combat zone. Not to change the subject but sometimes you saw some strange things from people from other countries. For example, some of the Russian soldiers from Mongolia who came into Germany for the first time and used running water would knock the faucet off the house and think they were going to take it home and get running water from just the faucet. B.M.; I know you're a good cook did you cook in the service at all? T.T. I became a cook in Germany . everybody does K.P. eventually. I cooked for 125 guys. Everybody does guard duty also. Everybody is treated the same. That's why there is so much Harmony and respect for each guy. It's nice that way. T.T.; I asked a lot of guys over the years what was the best part of your life? The answer would almost always be when they were in the service. At times in the Army, you thought your world was coming to an end when you joined the service. Once you were in there were so much camaraderie, so much warmth, and laughs, and sadness. You were always sharing your experiences with someone. You go home today and complain about your troubles and no one wants to here it, but in the Army you come to the barracks after a long hike and everybody is complaining together. B.M.; Getting back to cooking did you cook your Italian sauce? T.T.; Oh yes how I made that is another story. B.M.; Did they like it? T.T.; Oh yes, they loved it, they went bananas. I was baking cakes, making whipped cream, and it was great. Big German kitchen, great place to cook. NOTE; Tom Trobiano returned to Hackensack after the war to his 12 brothers and sisters. He had received several medals but lost them after letting his nieces and nephews play with them over the years. Out of curiosity he had an address to contact if you wanted to receive your medals. So I said lets send for them and see what you got, not knowing if he would receive anything. Sure enough he received the medals. Among The medals there was the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart. Tom Trobiano was partners in Englewood lumber Co. with Tom Meli in the 1950s and 1960s and became a prominent building contractor during the 1960's, 70's, 80's, and 90's. I am 51 years old and have known Tom Trobiano my entire life. He was my father's business partner when they owned Englewood lumber co. in the 1960s. He was always uncle Tommy to me and although I did not see him for years at a time I always felt if I ever needed help he would be there. He is one of the hardest working people I Know and is very sensitive almost to a fault. My dad Tom Meli, who deeply loves Tom Trobiano, told me about his military service in 2004. I interviewed Tom Trobiano in 2004 at the age of The year is 2010 and I (Bob Meli age 54 now) have just visited with Tom Trobiano who is now 85 years old and he has finally agreed to let his story be told. He had said after I interviewed him in 2005 that he did not think his story was a big deal compared to those men who suffered on the Battan Death March and he did not want it posted. After I spoke to Tom Trobiano recently and seeing the web site he finally said OK. Let us never forget the soldiers sacrifice. Written By: |
Thomas Trobiano's Interview |