Italy 1943-45

It was an Air Force sergeant who must have had access to the 15th Photography Unit, which enabled him to take this picture of my Sgt. Pezzula. Here he is “hamming if up” next to an army vehicle on a highway out side of Foggia. It is clear in the picture below that Sgt. Pezzula was driving a non-medical detachment vehicle. It did not have a red cross marked on its side. He also was not wearing the Red Cross armband, and to exacerbate the condition he was conspicuously wearing a 45 caliber pistol with an ammunition cartridge belt.

The commander of the photo unit that developed this picture did not recognize Pezzula as belonging to the headquarters company of the 15th, and could not get a reasonable explanation from his sergeant who took the picture. This story went up the line and exploded when the commissioned officer in charge of the photo unit could not ascertain who authorized the use of this vehicle to go anywhere.

I later found out from another source, that Pezzula was on his way to “liberate” an Italian gal in a nearby village. Apparently she also had a friend that could speak a little English for his buddy. I doubt, however, that conversation is what they had in mind.

Consequently, this picture went through the 15th Air Force intelligence section, up to the colonel of that unit and down to the colonel in our unit. My colonel saw this picture and recognized immediately who this troublemaker was and called me in. He spoke to me like a “red-headed stepson” and, shaking his head from side to side, he wanted to know how in the hell are we going to win this war with guys like me and Pezzula?

This time Pezzula lost his stripes.

Shortly after this incident, we shipped out. Our battalion was sent to protect the port town of Bari, on the Adriatic Sea. The Luftwaffe sank an incoming British ammunition vessel.

I gave Pezzula his stripes back with the warning to stay out of sight of the colonel. I figured he would be too busy to remember the incident. Once again, I got from Pezzula, “You're the greatest. Doc!” I could never run the outfit and do all that soldiering stuff without him.