{"id":76716,"date":"2024-06-06T19:52:57","date_gmt":"2024-06-06T19:52:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2024\/06\/06\/102-year-old-wwii-navy-vet-dies-en-route-to-d-day-commemorations\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T15:55:51","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T15:55:51","slug":"102-year-old-wwii-navy-vet-dies-en-route-to-d-day-commemorations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/veterans\/2024\/06\/06\/102-year-old-wwii-navy-vet-dies-en-route-to-d-day-commemorations\/","title":{"rendered":"102-year-old WWII Navy vet dies en route to D-Day commemorations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A World War II Navy veteran was being mourned Thursday following his death while en route to France to commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day, a trip friends said he\u2019d talked excitedly about making.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Robert \u201cAl\u201d Persichitti of Fairport, New York, fell ill during a stop in Germany last week and died in a hospital, his longtime priest and friend, the Rev. William Leone, said. Persichitti was 102.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/veterans\/military-history\/2024\/06\/02\/parachute-jump-over-normandy-kicks-off-d-day-80th-anniversary\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP24153452480467.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Parachute jump over Normandy kicks off D-Day 80th anniversary<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">WWII vets are converging on France to revisit old memories, make new ones and hammer home a message D-Day survivors have repeated time and time again.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cHe\u2019s been to most of the World War II remembrances down in Washington and Louisiana, and he wanted to get to the D-Day remembrance ceremony, too,\u201d Leone, pastor of the Church of Saint Jerome in East Rochester, where Persichitti attended Mass every week, said by phone. \u201cBut the Lord took him in Germany. He was on his way to France, but he didn\u2019t make it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A friend who was traveling with Persichitti said a doctor was with him when he died on May 30. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cShe put his favorite singer, Frank Sinatra, on her phone and he peacefully left us,\u201d Al DeCarlo told WHAM in Rochester.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The National WWII Museum in New Orleans called Persichitti a \u201clongtime friend.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After enlisting in the U.S. Navy in 1942, Persichitti was assigned as a radioman to the USS Eldorado and in 1944 sailed to the Pacific where he took part in the invasions of Iwo Jima and Okinawa, according to the museum. He was in the harbor at Iwo Jima to witness the raising of the U.S. flag atop Mount Suribachi, and had returned there in 2019, just before his 97th birthday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In an interview with WROC in Rochester before he left for Europe, Persichitti said he\u2019d been in his cardiologist\u2019s office when he learned about the trip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAnd he says, `Go!\u2019\u201d he recalled his doctor telling him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI\u2019m really excited to be going,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A retired public school teacher, Persichitti regularly spoke about his wartime experiences in schools and community gatherings, Leone said. He also wrote an autobiography for his family in 2015.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Persichitti led the Pledge of Allegiance at this year\u2019s Memorial Day remembrance in East Rochester.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cHe wanted,\u201d Leone said, \u201cto keep the memory of the sacrifices that had been made alive.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Robert Persichitti enlisted in the Navy in 1942 and later sailed on the USS Eldorado to the Pacific, taking part in the invasions of Iwo Jima and Okinawa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":94124,"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":19,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[101,87,26,19],"tags":[],"coauthors":[1355],"class_list":["post-76716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-military-history","category-newsletters","category-veterans"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"MDZBJ2OXRVHR7ETTCR46MNBFC4","arc_canonical_url":"\/veterans\/2024\/06\/06\/102-year-old-wwii-navy-vet-dies-en-route-to-d-day-commemorations\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented 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