Always been a fan of the great Mr. Tony Bennett. I saw him years ago in New Orleans and it was a thorough treat.
With his passing, it should be pointed out that Anthony Dominick Benedetto, son of grocer John Benedetto and seamstress Anna (née Suraci)– the first member of his family to be born in a hospital when he sang his first note at St. John’s Hospital in Long Island City in 1926, did he fair share as part of the Greatest Generation.
Drafted into the Army just after his 18th birthday in late 1944, Tony was assigned as a replacement infantryman to the 255th Infantry Regiment of the 63rd (“Blood and Fire”) Infantry Division, for the heavy losses suffered in the Battle of the Bulge.
He was with the 63rd as they smashed at the Siegfried Line, fought their way into Germany in that fierce bitter winter of early 1945, crossed the Rhine, and was with it for the liberation of Kaufering, one of Dachau’s subcamps.
He later wrote in his autobiography that “I saw things no human being should ever have to see.”