MARLBORO - Ben Indelicato had just graduated from high school in Brooklyn when the Army draft notice arrived. It was 1943, and World War II was raging.
“Uncle Sam said, ‘I need you,’” the Marlboro resident recalled. “It was my duty. Nobody wants to go. But you go.”
So off he went to the Pacific theater, where he helped liberate the Philippines in 1945. His primary task: laying telephone line to improve communication.
“Somebody had to put the wires up through the trees,” he said. “They used to call us ‘the monkeys’ because we used to climb the trees. They picked me because I was small.”
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Why was it important to be small?
“The snipers,” Indelicato said.
The smaller the human targets, the harder they were for a sniper to hit.
“A lot of my buddies were hit — a lot of them,” he said.
Indelicato turned 100 in early August, and his memory remains sharp. But most of these memories — ones of the war — he suppressed for decades.
“I try not to think too much about it,” he said. “I lost too many friends."
His daughter, Old Bridge resident Carol Nappo, never heard his war stories until recently, when her son (Ben’s grandson) started asking questions.
“He’d never really talked about it,” Nappo said. “This (millennial) generation, they want to know everything. I guess we did, too, but we never talked about it.”
She didn’t know that the Purple Heart medal in her father’s medal case — there are eight of medals, in all — was for a shrapnel injury caused by a Japanese mortar. The wound, in Indelicato’s back, has pained him throughout his life. But like many of the Greatest Generation, Indelicato kept that to himself.
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Married for 75 years and counting
He’s much more vocal about his wife Sina and their 75 years of marriage. A few years back they moved from their home in Monroe to Senior Living Residences (SLR) in Marlboro. Asked about the secret to a long and happy marriage, Ben’s response was quick and simple.
“I got a wonderful girl,” he said. “She’s everything.”
Sina, who is 92 now, immigrated to the U.S. from Sicily as a teenager. They married in 1948. Decades later, when health issues sidelined Ben from his career running a fish store, Sina stepped up and entered the work force so they could continue to pay the bills. She worked on Wall Street with the Depository Trust Co., retiring at age 69.
“What a good woman,” Ben said. “To me, 75 years together went fast.”
Their family has grown to include three children, five grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. They gathered Aug. 5 for Ben’s 100th birthday. SLR threw him a party. Among the attendees were Marlboro Township Council Vice President Michael Milman and Councilman Juned Qazi. They presented Ben with a proclamation from Mayor Jonathan Hornik.
The proclamation declared Aug. 5, 2024, as “Ben Indelicato Day” in Marlboro. Ben, who is Roman Catholic, also was presented with an apostolic blessing from Pope Francis — a special, personalized document.
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“It was very touching,” his daughter Carol said of the presentations.
Ben is hard of hearing and gets around in a wheelchair now, but he’s still vibrant of mind.
“He drank whole milk all his life,” Carol said, music about the secret to his longevity. “He’d have milk and cookies every night. People used to make fun of it. Even here, he has it at night.”
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'The guys were all crying'
Ben can still tell you, unprompted, how many Americans served in World War II.
“I’m one of the 16 million,” he said.
According to the National World War II museum, only about 75,000 (less than half of 1%) are still living. Indelicato has defied the odds, and he does not take that for granted. He still remembers the raw emotion of returning home across the Pacific to San Francisco Bay after the war’s end.
“Coming back on the transport, when we got underneath the Golden Gate Bridge, the guys were all crying,” he said. “They survived, and they left all those buddies behind.”
Painful as it may be, Ben recounts his wartime service because it's important for younger generations to know "how the past made the future," he said.
At the end of the conversation, as his visitors stood to leave, Ben extended his right hand.
The old soldier's still got a grip.
Jerry Carino is community columnist for the Asbury Park Press, focusing on the Jersey Shore’s interesting people, inspiring stories and pressing issues. Contact him at jcarino@gannettnj.com.
This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: 'I got a wonderful girl': Marlboro WWII vet saluted for 100th birthday, 75th anniversary
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