Vincent Speranza

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Vincent J. Speranza (March 23, 1925 – August 2, 2023) was an American private who served in the United States Army during World War II. Born in New York City, Speranza grew up on Staten Island with a large Italian family during the Great Depression. After graduating from high school in January 1943, he enrolled at City College of New York and enlisted in the United States Army at the age of 18, after being previously rejected due to being 16. While in the Army, he was sent to Camp Upton in New York State, Suffolk County, Yaphank, before being sent to Fort Benning in Georgia, where he trained with the 87th Infantry Division. He volunteered for the Parachute Infantry and was sent overseas, with the 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division, to Scotland, England, Belgium and France, where his unit would later fight in the Battle of the Bulge. His first engagement was in the Siege of Bastogne, where he operated a machine gun from a foxhole. During the siege, he visited a wounded comrade at a field hospital. The soldier asked for a drink, and Speranza, who had no containers for the drink, found a beer tap and used his helmet as a container. He was caught by the regimental surgeon and was reprimanded. He was discharged in January 1946, spending 144 days in combat. His highest rank was Private first class. After the end of World War II, Speranza lived in Allied-occupied France and the Netherlands until moving back to New York in December 1945, becoming a teacher at Curtis High School. He received a Purple Heart, Bronze Star and a Presidential Unit Citation. In 1948, he married Iva Leftwich, who was his wife until her death in 2017. They had three children. In...