farragutpress

Dario dared the enemy and won; honored at 100.5

September 25, 2024 by Tammy Cheek

KNOXVILLE —Morning Pointe Senior Living resident Dario Antonucci, 100 1/2, was honored for his service in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II with a special pinning ceremony Monday, Sept. 16, in MPSL, 9649 Westland Drive in Knoxville.

“It’s an honor,” Dario said. “I can’t express in words. It’s beautiful; it’s kind; it’s such an honor. I never anticipated I’d ever get to this stage in my life.

“Everyone has been so good, so kind, here … at Morning Pointe,” he added. “It’s beyond words to express my thanks and affection for everybody.”

“He has lived many adventurous lifetimes,” his son, Richard Antonucci, said of his father. “He’s certainly my hero. He’s one of a kind; and if anybody deserves to live 100 years, he does.”

“It is amazing,” Dario’s daughter, Rosemary Calvert, said about the ceremony. “It really means a lot to him.

“You know, veterans give up a lot, a portion of their lives, and it’s nice to know, even after a hundred years, that people still appreciate him,” she added. “And, it helps us to appreciate all the people who have been in the armed services, whatever branch.

“It makes us very proud.”

MPSL’s goal is to honor “the amazing men and women who walk through our door,” said Kari Christopher, MPSL senior life enrichment director. “We have nine veterans who live in our community, and Dario is our only World War II veteran.

“So when we heard from Ginger Maples (volunteer service manager and veterans coordinator with University of Tennessee Medical Center Hospice) and they wanted to honor (Dario), we wanted to do something special,” he added.

Sponsored by Hospice, the pinning ceremony recognizes a veteran’s military service and sacrifices.

“Thank you for allowing us this privilege to honor Dario today,” Maples said. “The American Legion was congressionally chartered on this day (Sept. 16) in 1919, and we have two distinguished members of the state of Tennessee American Legion, (Sen. Vice Cmdr.) James McLaughlin (of Kingsport) and (Vice Commander) Todd McKinney with us.”

“It is, indeed, an honor to be here to celebrate the service of a fellow Army veteran,” McLaughlin said.

Dario’s son pinned the Army and American flag pins on his father during the ceremony. He also received certificates for his service.

“For services in the Armed Forces of the United States of America, I extend to you my personal thanks and sincere appreciation of a grateful nation and citizens of Tennessee for your contribution and honorable service to our country,” McKinney read from one of the certificates Dario received. “You have helped maintain the security of our nation in a critical time in its history.”

Along with the pins and certificates, Dario received a photo of a plane much like the one he was in during his service from Army Brig. Gen. Robert Lytle.

“The war that they fought was very necessary,” Lytle said about Dario and his fellow soldiers in World War II. “We had 50,000 soldiers in China, and they had to be supplied … in harrowing missions.”

“It’s a privileged gift,” Dario said about receiving the photo.

Dario served as a sergeant in the 54th Fighter Patrol Squadron of the Army Air Corps, during World War II, from 1942 to 1945.

“He was stationed with four other soldiers in the jungles of Burma to radio control and guide fighter (planes), bombers and cargo planes to fly over (the Himalayas), so we could supply China with equipment to fight the Japanese,” Maples related. “He was also used as a radio man on the planes flying the Hump (Himalayan Mountains).”

Dario was born in March 1924 in a mud brick house in Calabria in Southern Italy — “no electricity, no water, not even an outhouse,” Richard related. “His father had come to the United States about six months before he was born to work.

“So, he lived with his mother and his sister,” the son added about his father. “At the time (dictator Benito) Mussolini was in charge of Italy, so it was fascist.”

Mussolini ruled Italy from 1922 to 1925 as prime minister and from 1925 to 1943 as il Duce (leader).

After Dario’s mother died when he was 11, in 1937, “his father was finally able to get (Dario) out of fascist Italy right before he turned 13,” Richard said. “Because in an autocratic countries, when you turn 13, you’re military age; so (his dad) got (Dario) right out.”

Once in America, Dario was placed in the fourth grade because he did not know English. Five years later, he graduated high school.

Military, family man

“One week after high school graduation, (Dario) joined the Army Air Corps,” Richard said. “He was a radio man gunner and was stationed in Burma for three years.

“He used to direct the fighter planes and the bombers over the hump — the Himalayan Mountains — between India and China,” the son added about Dario. “He was discharged in 1946, and because he was discharged late — because he was coming from India — he could not get into a college during the daytime, so he went to school, for 13 years, at night and became an electrical engineer.

Dario then worked for Grumman Aircraft, “which is now Northrop Grumman, and became chief of metrology — or chief of measurements,” Richard said, adding his father was involved in the development of the F14 fighter, the Awacks surveillance aircraft and the lunar module “that brought (astronaut Neil) Armstrong to the moon” in 1969.

Those accomplishments were “huge. They’re incredible,” the son reflected. “Think about coming to a country, not knowing the language, and five years later you’re in the middle of the jungles of Burma, directing American aircraft over the mountains.

“And then, going to school at night for 13 years to get your degree while working during the day, and being involved in the development of the F14, the Awacks and lunar module.”

As a father, Dario was “a fantastic dad, a great dad, an incredible role model,” Richard said.

For Rosemary, her father taught, “No. 1, always believe in God … and to do the right thing and to make the right judgments.

“And it served him well,” she added

Dario married Annette Ventura Antonucci, who died in 2019, and they had three children: Richard, Rosemary Calvert and Daria Antonucci; eight grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren.