WEST MAYFIELD, Pa. \u2014 \u201cEighty-six!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s what Joe Norton would say whenever something was good, Roger Soriano said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the 1940s, Soriano served with Norton in the 776th Field Artillery Battalion, both men in charge of different aspects of supplying the battalion with equipment – Norton handled the vehicles and Soriano the other supplies as they trained in Texas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When something was repaired to his satisfaction, Norton would say \u201cThat\u2019s eighty-six!\u201d If they were off base and an attractive woman walked by, he\u2019d say \u201cEighty-six.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When the battalion shipped out of New York City on the RMS Aquitania to join the fighting, the troops walked to the pier, Soriano looked up and had to smile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt said pier number 86,\u201d Soriano said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He was with Norton and told him: \u201cHoly mackerel. Now is that a good omen or a bad omen, Joe?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHe (Norton) says \u2018It\u2019s got to be good,\u2019\u201d Soriano remembered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was, as Soriano survived being in the thick of the fighting in Europe during World War II. The West Mayfield native celebrated his 98th birthday on July 29.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although he has memories of horrific experiences during the war, as he was part of a unit that supplied the ammunition for the front lines, Soriano chooses to focus on the better memories of his time in the service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis is a little story now,\u201d Soriano said a couple days before his 98th birthday party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He was on a troop train making its way to Texas that was stopped in Montgomery, Ala., for what was supposed to be a 20-minute layover.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They weren\u2019t supposed to be drinking hard liquor, but Soriano, who was a sergeant, and three other guys went to a bar and had a few.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe get back to the station (and) the train\u2019s gone,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As the ranking member of the party, it was Soriano\u2019s job to figure out how to catch the train. The station master was annoyed with the men: \u201cYou GIs cause me nothing but trouble,\u201d he told them, Soriano said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The train was stopped 20 miles outside of town and Soriano managed to hail a \u201cblack market\u201d cab that charged them $20 to get there because taxis weren\u2019t allowed out of the city limits during the war. They ended up getting pulled over by a state cop, who was sympathetic to their cause and let them meet up with the train.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When they were finally aboard the train, the guys were dressed down for drinking, but otherwise weren\u2019t punished.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Europe, the 776th landed at Omaha Beach in Normandy post-D-day and made its way to the front.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe marched for about 5 miles, ended up in a place with a big field, next to a great big stone house,\u201d Soriano said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That was where they were to stage as they awaited their equipment, Soriano said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was raining and the pup tents they slept in provided no shelter, so the men gathered timber and built 10 huts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe slept in them for two or three weeks,\u201d Soriano said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The called the place Camp Crud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAfter that, we got into the war… France, Holland, Belgium, (we) got into the Bulge,\u201d Soriano said, referring to the Battle of the Bulge, one of the bloodiest battles of the war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They fought for 176 straight days, \u201cshooting and moving,\u201d Soriano said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He remembered the unit lost a cook, who was hit by a shell while standing under a tree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOur battery was a half-mile back of the firing batteries,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another story Soriano remembers is how a soldier who was shell shocked was sent back to where his unit was sheltering — they were inside a house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHe\u2019s sitting there with four or five other guys in this room,\u201d Soriano said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The kid picked his gun up at one point and fired it at a pile of straw.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cPow,\u201d Soriano said they heard as the soldier fired his gun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI seen it move,\u201d the man said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Inside the pile, a German soldier had been hiding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEvidently he wasn\u2019t too bad off,\u201d if he was sharp enough to spot what the others hadn\u2019t, Soriano said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another time, in eastern Germany toward the end of the war, Soriano encountered two German kids, a brother and sister.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI gave them each a bar of candy and a package of chewing gum,\u201d he remembered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After a time, their mother returned to thank him for the gesture and presented Soriano with two Nazi swords and a sabre that he brought home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some of Soriano\u2019s other memories are disappearing with age.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019m getting to the point where I forget a lot of stuff,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He focuses on the good times because the bad times are tough to forget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI could tell you stuff you wouldn\u2019t even believe,\u201d Soriano said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That includes another story about Joe Norton, whose \u201cEighty-six!\u201d meant all was well. During the war, Norton\u2019s wife was shopping in a grocery store and ran into another woman and they talked about their husbands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The more they talked, the more it became evident that Norton was married to both of them, Soriano said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHe (Norton) took his discharge overseas, he didn\u2019t come back home,\u201d Soriano said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A World War II veteran reflects on his experiences in the military.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":45000,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":21,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[101,26,21],"tags":[],"coauthors":[5023],"class_list":["post-22305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-newsletters","category-veterans"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"D3AHD7D4UJC27MFO7XWEDNMOXU","arc_canonical_url":"\/veterans\/2017\/08\/26\/veteran-focuses-on-better-memories-of-his-wwii-service\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n