AMY M. FERRARA I FC
In 1941, when Cosimo Delfino was 22 years old, he enlisted in the military as a member of a field artillery unit and sailed for England.
Veterans Day
Dodging enemy planes
to go to Mass
AMY M. FERRARA | FLORIDA CATHOLIC STAFF
Published: 11.09.07
PANAMA CITY | Cosimo Delfino flipped open a palm-size compass.
“It’s from an 88-caliber artillery piece,” he said. “We knocked it out. I took the compass.”
He keeps a stack of black-and-white photographs, a small leather logbook and the compass in a folder labeled “WWII Memorabilia.” But his memory holds much more.
In 1941, when Delfino was 22 years old, he enlisted in the military as a member of a field artillery unit and sailed for England. He then moved with his unit to the Strait of Gibraltar, the channel connecting the Mediterranean Sea with the Atlantic Ocean. There, an Italian submarine snuck through and put a bomb under Delfino’s boat. The alarm sounded and the men awakened in time to disengage it. It was the first of many war circumstances he refers to as “destiny.”
From there, Delfino sailed to Africa, where the Army discovered he had no citizenship papers. This was because Delfino was born in Italy in 1919. His father, a surgeon in Ohio, was sent by the governor to Italy on what Delfino calls “a mission.” After the youngest of his three boys was born, Delfino’s father moved back to Ohio; his family followed later.
“I never saw my mother,” Delfino said. When he was 4 or 5, he thinks, his father passed away.
Orphaned, his older brother went to the Manual Training School in West Virginia, which was run by priests, while Delfino and his younger brother went to the nearby St. John’s Home, an orphanage managed by nuns. After eighth grade, Delfino also went to the Manual Training School. His older brother, who had hitchhiked to New York City, eventually picked up the two younger boys and they lived together in a “cold-water flat” in New York City.
Because he didn’t have any citizenship papers, the military requested proof of Delfino’s birth from Italy. When he saw the papers, Delfino realized two things: Instead of “Cosmo,” his name was “Cosimo.” And, instead of his birthday being Dec. 23, it was Dec. 25. He, in a sense, had a new identity.
Delfino continued his military tour as “Cosimo.” Then, while stationed in Sorrento, Italy, he unexpectedly ran into his younger brother, who had also enlisted in the military. Destiny again.
Nearing the end of the war, when he arrived at Anzio for the D-Day battle, Delfino stood on the deck of his ship instead of taking cover down below. He looked up, saw an enemy plane coming and watched as it released a bomb. The bomb landed in the water next to the boat.
One day, while he was participating in an outdoor Mass, Delfino said, he saw German planes fly overhead. But the trees, he assured, protected them. The planes passed by.
After the Battle of the Bulge Dec. 16, 1944, Delfino and his unit heard rumors that the Army planned to make them continue their tour of duty by sending them to the Pacific. Angered, Delfino wrote a letter to the Allied Supreme Commander, General Dwight D. Eisenhower requesting that they be sent back to America, and he petitioned his fellow section men to sign their names. Not long after, a major from headquarters sought out Delfino and told him that he and his unit were going home. Eisenhower had read his letter.
Once in America, Delfino had a bout with malaria, resulting in the removal of half of his liver. But things got better. He married, had two sons and one daughter and established a career in the printing business in upstate New York.
“I retired when computers came out,” he said.
Then in the 1990s, he moved to Panama City to be near his daughter. He became a member of St. John the Evangelist Parish and a regular handyman, fixing cars, rewiring his house and building bookcases to hold his large collection of VHS tapes. He has nine grandchildren, and though he will be 88 on Christmas Day, Delfino seems to move as easily as any one of them. To his list of hobbies he also adds Meals on Wheels. He is not a recipient — he is a member of the delivery crew.
JOSEPH ENGEL'S STORY | BOB GATES' STORY
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