Robert Persichitti was an American veteran of World War II. It was because he died in recent days, just as he was reaching Normandy to celebrate the eightieth anniversary of the landing. “I’m really excited to go,” he said.
He had left the United States on board a ship to reach France. He who had spent fifteen months of war on the ocean and, from there, among those waves, had seen the American flag rise on Iwo Jima.
Bob was happy to leave, even though his heart had already started to fail from time to time. His cardiologist, however, had reassured him: that trip would not cause him any problems. But that wasn’t the case and Bob made it, dying at 102 years old. He felt ill while on the ship and was then hurriedly taken to Germany. A few moments, the desire to listen to his beloved Frank Sinatra once again.
“He served his country courageously and without hesitation”: this is how Honor Flight, the veterans’ organization to which he was a member, remembers him.
Bob defied age and heart attacks to bring his last farewell to the many who died on that beach covered in blood, sweat and sand. With whom he now finally rests,
