Domenic Giarrusso has spent his life in aviation. At 101 years old (at the time of this writing), he served as an Army Air Corps flight engineer and mechanic in North Africa and Italy during World War II. After the war, he worked as an aircraft mechanic and supervisor at the Naval Air Rework Facility […]
Leger was probably the first Rhode Islander lost in the European Theater during WWII. Trained as a gunner, he deployed to Palestine. Within two weeks of his arrival he was dead. Staff Sergeant Rene A. Leger was killed on August 9, 1942, when his Palestine-based B-24 went down during a raid against Rommel’s supply line […]
Born in Providence, Perkins attended Mt. St. Charles Academy, played hockey and was the All-State football quarterback his senior year. He enlisted in the Army Air Corps three months before Pearl Harbor, earned his wings and shipped over to Italy. He flew B-17 bombers with the 353rd Bomb Squadron (Heavy), 301st Bomb Group. On January […]
LT George Sutcliffe, USAF was born in North Providence and graduated from Mt. Pleasant High in 1940. He enlisted in the Army Air Corps shortly after Pearl Harbor, and graduated from flight school in May 1943. Sutcliffe deployed to Europe with the 368th Fighter Group, flying the P47 Thunderbolt. Prior to D-Day, their mission was […]