The first man stepped in there and he hit
a mine. So, his leg is blown and he's laying there
and moaning. Then K Company comes up. Same thing. The man went up, put his foot in there, and
it was blown. And he's moaning. Then our turn comes. So I looked up in the heavens. I think I had divine guidance. And I said, "God, help me." And I started with my first foot. Years before Samuel Lombardo was born, his
father - an Italian national - had a dream of relocating to the United States,
finding a job, and raising a family. By 1914, he had made it to America and was
well on his way to achieving his dream, when fate called him back to Italy. Dad came over because his mother wrote him
and said, "I'm going blind. I would like to see you one more time before
I go blind." So he got over there and, guess what. World War I broke out while he was there in
our town. So they grabbed him and put him in the Army. So he served in the Italian Army. Anyhow, while he was home he got married, and that's when the three of us were born. I was born in Calabria, southern Italy, and
I saw Mussolini and I saw what oppression was. Every week we had to get out and raise our hands when the Blackshirts marched
through the town. One day the fascists came through, and I was
standing there and this man on my right was bent over at
ninety degrees. So he must have had osteoporosis. And when the fascists came through, everybody
raised their hand. But he couldn't raise it, of course. And two fascists came over, grabbed him by
the neck, and took him to the dungeon. They came through and put out an order that if you had any foreign flags you had
to report them. So we had an American flag and also a socialist
flag because dad was a Socialist because he was fighting fascism. So we had the two flags, and my mother gave
them to me. I put them under my arm and she said to hide
them in the attic. So I went up there and I hid them. I came back down slowly and I stood next to
my mom, and she was white as a sheet. She was trembling because we were expecting the henchmen and
the mayor to come by. And finally they came. They asked her, "Do you have any foreign flags
to report?" And she said no, but she was trembling. And at that time, I just grabbed her by the
skirt and I went into a tantrum. And I yelled as loud as I could. And they had enough of me, so they all left
right away. Captivated by his father’s stories of the
Land of Opportunity, Sam longed for the day he could leave Mussolini’s Italy behind
and start a new life in America. In 1929, at ten years old, Sam finally got
that chance. We got orders to come to America, which we
were waiting for. When we arrived at New York harbor, it was
all fogged in. But I wanted to see the Statue of Liberty
more than anything else. So, guess what. At five o'clock in the morning, I slipped
out of bed, and went upstairs, and went up front. And finally the fog lifted and the statue
showed up. You can't believe the jubilation. Everybody was happy and singing. We got off, and I still remember on the sidewalk
my dad got us all together and he said, "Remember your heritage. Be proud of your heritage. You can't change that. But, America is our new country." I knew the black clouds of Europe and Hitler
were getting strong. I said to my dad and mother, "We're going
to go to war. You watch." But I had to convince them, because they didn't
want me to join the Guard. I said, "If I join it, I'm better prepared and I'll have a better chance of living through
the war over there." I wanted to go overseas to get Hitler myself
- I really felt so strong. Sam joined the Pennsylvania National Guard,
and soon after attended officer school in Fort Benning, Georgia,
graduating as a Second Lieutenant. But it wasn’t until the Autumn of 1944 that Sam would find himself heading back to
Europe, into combat. And guess what. We landed at Omaha Beach. But this was October. And I got assigned to the 99th Division, on
the line. Sweeping along the Roer River and the Siegfried
Line, the 99th swiftly made their way toward Germany. But in mid-December, the advance came to a
halt, and the Battle of the Bulge began. They thought the war was going to be over
by Christmas. Then finally, the 16th comes around and the
bombardments all started. So we held the line. And we had a lot of night patrols at that
time. A lot of night patrols, every night. They'd send a patrol over to see the front
line. And every night, somebody was killed. Finally, we were getting ready for their main
thrust, and we started digging. And I dug and dug and dug. I went down seven feet. And my company commander said, "Why are you
going to deep?" I said, "You wait until the bombardment comes. You'll know why." And the bombardment started at five o'clock,
and this was Armageddon. It bombed for twenty-five minutes. Can you imagine that? For twenty-five minutes the Germans threw
everything they had at us. Nebelwerfers, cannons, mortars, everything. I thought it was the end of the earth. And finally, that last shell that came in
hit our hole. And all that dirt - that seven feet of dirt... The shell hit there and the whole side of
the wall caved in, but the shell never came through. So then I realized and he realized... I said, "Do you see that extra soil we had?" That saved our life or we wouldn't be here
today. So I said, "Are you ok?" He said, "Yes." He said, "Are you ok?" "Yes." So we shook all of the soil off of our heads
and stood up, and it was all over. For five minutes you could hear a pin drop. And then our own artillery started, and they
went for twenty-five minutes, retaliating. Nothing happened after that. The attack never came. So we must have broken their back and disoriented
them and so forth. After months of combat in Europe, Sam began to miss the visage of the American
flag. To him it was a representation of his family,
his home, and everything he held dear. We take it for granted. We see the American flag every day at the stations, at the federal building. I got homesick for the American flag. I really did. They're not going to send one to the foxhole. I wasn't on the chain of supply, so I couldn't
get one. And that made me mad. So I said, "We'll make our own flag." So, you've probably seen pictures of whole
towns where the streets are all lined with white
flags. That's when the cities gave up. And here was a three by five which looked
just perfect for me. So I sent the sergeant down to the town, and he borrowed a sewing machine and brought
the sewing machine in. And the pillow cases were the red, and the
curtains - big, big blue curtains... We were so lucky, because you could see the
colors were just exact. So that was the beginning of our flag. From that time on, every time we were in reserve,
we worked until twelve at night, and then in the morning we would jump off
to the next attack. When we got to the end of the Bulge, we got
up to the German and Belgian border. We had to cross and clean these Germans from
the border. That was our orders. So we had to cross. L Company was first, K Company, and then I Company, which was my
company. So the first man steps in there and he hits
a mine. So his leg is blown and he's laying there
and moaning. We can still hear him. Then K Company comes up. Same thing. The man goes up, puts his foot in there, and
it's blown. And he's moaning. Then our turn comes. With explicit orders to advance against German
positions across the field, it was now up to Sam’s platoon to lead the
way. The first thing that went through my mind
was "I'm the leader." I graduated from Fort Benning, I'm an officer,
I'm the leader. I gotta do it. I got the rest of the men all together. I told them all, "Follow me, but don't step
out of my footprints." "If I step on a mine, Sergeant Rosen will
take over." So I looked up in the heavens. I think I had divine guidance. And I said, "God, help me." And I started with my first foot. Crunch, crunch, crunch. Nothing happened. And the same thing: crunch, crunch, crunch. You know, I went two hundred and fifty yards. Not ten yards or fifteen. Two hundred and fifty yards. But I'll tell you, I died with every step. Every step. When I got to the end and I looked across, every man was in my footprints. It was a great sight. But we got through it, I got all sixty-five
men. I'm lucky to be here. Three days later, when we cleared out the
woods, we had to come back. The snow was melted, so I said, "I gotta go
back and see where we crossed. I wanna go." So I went back and I took a G.I. with me - one
of my soldiers. And we got down, we looked. And, believe it or not, as far as I could
see there was a mine every three feet for two
hundred yards. I went down there and I saw the squares where
they put the mines in. I wanted to see what kind of German mines
they were. And I was this far from picking the grass,
and my soldier said, "Lieutenant, let's not stretch our luck." And I backed off and I didn't do it. I didn't do it. Three days later, the Battle of the Bulge
came to an end, and the 99th Infantry continued the pursuit
of German forces across Europe until May of 1945 when Germany surrendered. Before leaving Europe, the war now behind
them, the 99th Infantry Division paused for a ceremony in which Sam was awarded a Bronze Star, a
Silver Star, and I Company’s hand-made American flag. At the end, they had a formation and they
presented me with the flag because I was instrumental in making it. So when I came home, then I gave it to the
Infantry Museum at Fort Benning, Georgia which is the logical place. I gave it to them, and that's where it is
today. So last year we took fifteen people up there
to see it, and I thought it would be in the archives. Instead of that, it was in the most prominent
place in the museum: the infantry entrance. So that was nice. So I'm very proud we did it. Whatever little I contributed, I'm grateful
that I was able to give for this great country.
