One of the few WWII vets left dies on way to Normandy

His pastor remembers Robert Persichitti, 102, as a man with a "real zest for living."

The pastor and long time friend of the 102-year-old World War II veteran who passed away on his way to D-Day celebrations in France remembered him as having lived an extraordinary life.

Robert F. Persichitti died last Friday while traveling to Normandy for a ceremony marking the 80th anniversary of D-Day.

“It was a privilege to know him, and I will miss him. He had a real zest for living,” Fr. William Leone, pastor of St. Jerome in East Rochester, New York, told WHAM-13 in Rochester.

While on a ship in the North Sea, he suffered a “medical condition,” said RochesterFirst.com, and was flown to a hospital in Germany.

Persichitti had a history of heart problems, but according to RochesterFirst.com, his cardiologist recently examined him and told him “Go!” to Normandy.

“I’m really excited to be going,” he said.

Married for 64 years

Persichitti grew up in a Depression-era Pennsylvania coal mining patch town and served in Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Civilian Conservation Corps, He joined the Navy in 1942 and served in as a radioman on the command ship U.S.S. Eldorado. He said he helped handle “all the communications for the two operations: Iwo Jima and Okinawa.”

According to Stars and Stripes, “Persichitti was among the American troops on Feb. 19, 1945, that witnessed Marines raising the American flag atop Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima, a moment captured by The Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal that would become one of the most iconic images of the war.

“In 2019, Persichitti returned to Mount Suribachi as part of a veterans program with the National World War II Museum in New Orleans.”

That museum also sponsored his trip to Normandy.

In civilian life, he became a master carpenter and high school teacher. He was married to his wife, Elgina, for 64 years. In retirement, he would visit area grammar schools and tell them about his experiences growing up and during the Second World War, Fr. Leone said.

He also self-published several memoirs, including An American Life Well-Lived.

Al DeCarlo, a friend who was traveling with him on the trip to France, said he concluded that life with a distinctly American twist.

“The doctor was with him. He was not alone, he was at peace and he was comfortable,” DeCarlo said. “She put his favorite singer, Frank Sinatra, on her phone and he peacefully left us.”