For those of you who receive our free newsletter (Update) via snail-mail, you may recall a story we did in April, 2024 on 2Lt Pasquale (Pat) Aceto who died during the Second World War.  Lt. Aceto is a great uncle of our Design Editor Andrew Ricci.  He died of wounds after a battle on Leyte, Philippines in 1944.

The official records of Lt. Aceto’s army life and death are sparse due to a major fire in 1973 at the St. Louis military archives (12 million records were lost!).  Nevertheless, our researcher Ellen Maresca and Andrew’s father George turned up a trove of personal and Army-related information. We now know that Lt. Aceto married just before being shipped out, and that his body was transported home for burial in Queens, NY.  However, we do not know what became of his wife. One record in search of her revealed that she denied being married to anyone during the war—strange, because we have a marriage certificate.  We also do not know if anyone in the Aceto family received a posthumous Purple Heart on his behalf when the body was shipped home.

Still, we had enough information to reach out to the U.S. Army’s Awards & Decorations Branch to apply for a Purple Heart, something Andrew could retain as a family remembrance.  At first, the Awards people balked at issuing awards to 3rd generation family members, especially if the surnames were different.  Over the course of a few months, however, I managed to convince the Army that it’s been done before.  In fact, a few years ago, I had petitioned and received a Purple Heart and medals for my own great uncle Luigi Merola who was killed in the First World War.

We submitted the birth certificates of Lt. Aceto’s sister (Andrew’s maternal grandmother), as well as Andrew’s and his late mother’s, including her marriage certificate to link the Ricci surname with the Aceto family.  In addition, we reminded the Army that we had provided all the documentation on Lt. Aceto’s short military hitch, which they no longer had due to the St Louis fire—they owed us!

Our logic, persistence, and sincerity were not wasted.  We received a letter listing all the awards Lt. Aceto was entitled to at death.  The only proviso was that we had to pay $37.50 for the medals and shipment, truly a nominal fee under the circumstances.  A check was sent and the Army mailed Andrew an impressive treasure of military honors (right):

• The Purple Heart
• The Bronze Star (for Guam)
• American Campaign Medal
• Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal
• Combat Infantryman Badge
• Philippine Liberation Ribbon with 2 Bronze Stars
• Honorable Service Lapel Button (better known as the “ruptured duck”)

There are still gaps in Lt. Aceto’s story.  He wasn’t killed in action, only slightly wounded. But any death certificate was lost in the St. Louis fire.  We believe he died of sepsis, perhaps in a field hospital after a battle that a history of his Army unit indicated included a Japanese “banzai” charge. 

In a letter to his sister written from a Guam battlefield before the invasion of the Philippines, Pat Aceto promised that he would make it home for any victory parade on 5th Avenue: “…tell Mom I promise that I’ll be there.” It was never to be.

How long the memory of Pat Aceto’s sacrifice for our country will stay in the Ricci family is hard to predict.  (Lt. Aceto had no children; death took him at age 23.)  To increase the odds, his awards will be framed with his photo and brief history.  Hopefully, this condensed biography will become a keepsake in the Ricci family to be passed down thru the generations.

As for the bigger picture, we should note that Italian Americans made up one of the largest ethnic contingents in both world wars.  Some twenty of these servicemen were awarded the Medal of Honor.  Sadly, America knows so little of our real story. –JLM