Michael Bilello, Salt Lake City, Utah: an interview by Luke Kelly, April 17, 2001: Saving the legacy tape no. 223

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I L BIL LL nflict. And wh n m rica g t into th war it r ally tum d n t r 1 t th p w r till in businesses in th city specially th German and I tali n to me- that there was that much concern in the city. LUK: Was your family a victim or was there any hate towards your family? hi h 17 urpr1 tn MIC: No not at all. My oldest brother had a family and he was working at a defense plant so he got a draft deferment. My middle brother went in the army before Pearl Harbor and he actually wound up going to the initial invasion of Africa. He was wounded in Tunisia they treated him, and he went on to England and was in the French D-Day invasion. Then he was wounded again in Germany. He had two Purple Hearts. Both of my brothers are gone now. LUK: And where were you personally December 7th 1941? 1 MIC: I was at home, and a senior in high school. Soon after, I tried to go into the navy air force, or army air force somehow. But when they saw how old I was the recruiter said, "Well, we can't do it since we'll be getting you through the draft anyway." So that was the end of that activity. I was called into the service soon after I turned eighteen. So we're talking now '43. So in 1941, when the war broke out I was about to graduate from high school. Then in '43, I was in the service. LUK: What led you to - you were drafted into the navy, or did you sign up? MIC: Oh, that's kind of a cute story, because when I went in, you know, I was 1-A. I went through all the rigamarole of passing the physical and at the end there was an army officer, he said "Well, it looks like you can have a choice of the army, navy or the marines." I said "Well I really hadn't thought of about that." So this army officer kind of looked back and 5