WWII veteran visits Italian town, residents honor troops

When Pete Garbarini returned to Italy in March 2005, things were quite different from how he remembered. His World War II Air Force base lay in ruins, and the locals had reason to smile.

But one thing remained the same: Italian hospitality.

When Garbarini, now a West Ashley resident, couldn't find his old base on that trip, he and his family ran into local writer Anna Rita Morleo, compiling stories about the war.

She pointed Garbarini in the right direction and kept in touch with him. Earlier this year when she was putting together a ceremony in Manduria, Italy, to celebrate the birth of the Italian Republic, she passed along an invitation to Garbarini.

Little did Garbarini know he'd be a guest of honor speaking on behalf of the 12 million American troops who fought in World War II.

"I was just overwhelmed with those people's hospitality," Garbarini said. "They just opened the town up for us. They just couldn't thank us enough, just like I had liberated Italy all by myself."

Garbarini, 82, said he flew into Rome and then traveled to Brindisi where he was met by about a dozen people who led him around the town for a few days, bringing him to a photo exhibit of his 450th Bomb Group, the Cottontails, showing him memorials built to the Americans and introducing him to high school children who were delighted to hear his stories.

During the May 30 ceremony in recognition of the anniversary on June 2, Garbarini said he was surprised to see he was only one of four speakers. But on stage, Garbarini knew what he wanted to say to the Italians. Instead of recounting war stories as many had hoped he would, he thought back to happier war memories.

"I said, 'Before I get started this evening, I have one question to ask: Each time we came to town the little boys came up and asked for candy,' and I said - I get tickled at this - 'Are any of you out in the audience tonight?' Sure enough three old men held their hands up," Garbarini said recounting the night.

The veteran came prepared for his trip, toting several bags of M&M's with him, which he then handed out to the old men who once came up to him asking, "Hey Joe, chocolate?" Mothers sent their children up to the stage too, he said.

Following his speech, the band struck up "New York, New York." Garbarini said his interpreter leaned over and said, "Hey, that's for you."

Overcome with his homecoming, Garbarini invited his American friend Carla Schultz up on stage, and they danced as the Italians applauded.

"That was so special. I wish I had a picture of that," said Schultz, who had come with Garbarini for the trip. "Getting up in front of them that was the high point of my trip."

Garbarini doesn't talk a lot about his experience during the war, but he remembers the night of the liberation.

"It just happened that we had completed our tour and we had been sent to Naples to wait on a ship to come home the night that Italy was liberated. We were in a little family restaurant there in Naples having dinner, and suddenly we heard all this noise outside," Garbarini said.

He said he thought, "What in the world is going on?" while a barrage of drums and horns and fireworks went off outside. "I thought it was another invasion. The owner and his family go outside, and suddenly he comes back in, and they're hugging us and kissing us and, good gosh almighty, we finally realized what it was all about - Italy had been liberated."

Following his service in World War II, Garbarini was recalled for Korea, but never deployed as he was in pilot training. After a career of 26 years in the Air Force, Garbarini is now retired and lives in Shadowmoss.

Of his World War II crew, six members are still alive, he said. Despite being strewn all over the country, they still get together sometimes.