Foil: 9 Panel: 2 Column: 2 Line: 67

Wall of Honor Level:
Air and Space Friend

Honored by:
Mr. James V. Carboni

Vasinto "Vinny" Carboni was born on December 18, 1917, less than a year before the armistice that ended World War I, the "war to end all wars." His was a humble upbringing to Italian-immigrant parents in rural Ridgefield, Connecticut. The youngest of three rambunctious boys, Vinny was affectionately known around town as "Pup." He could hold his own against his older brothers or any boy in town for that matter. He had an impish smile, movie-star good looks, and an out-going personality that helped him get along with everyone, especially the girls. Glib to a fault, he could talk himself out of any predicament, no matter how irate his antagonist might be.
Poor health forced him to delay his graduation from Ridgefield High School until 1938. The class had 38 students. Ominous war clouds were gathering over Europe again, just 20 years from the end of WWI. But the events in Europe seemed a world away as Vinny started his working career with the Edwards Company, an electronics manufacturer located in Norwalk, CT. In 1940 he met a young beauty from New Haven, named Alda, who would eventually become his wife, but not before four long years of separation due to World War II.
In 1941 he enlisted in the Army Air Corps. The draft had started and he didn't want to be a foot soldier. At first the Army didn't want him. He had a heart murmur and he flunked his physical. His two older brothers worked in industries vital to national defense, so he did not have to serve if he didn't want to. His father was very much against any notion of his youngest son going off to war. But this was Vinny's chance to see the world and serve his country. He forged his father's signature on the enlistment papers and took the physical again. This time the Army doctors designated him "fit for duty."
He trained in Savannah, Georgia, with the 8th Army Air Corps. With his engaging personality, he was an instant hit with his fellow GIs. He coined nicknames for nearly everyone in his unit, and most of them stuck! He also came up with secret monikers for the various barracks on base. He loved his new life but missed the sweetheart he left behind. However, he was more convinced than ever, that he was doing the right thing.
He trained as a radio operator, which made sense for the "great communicator." He learned the Morse Code quickly and it became as natural to him as English. Nearly 50 years after the war he could still recite the entire alphabet in Morse. He became very ill in the fall of 1941 and missed graduating with his class of radiomen. That class ended up in the Philippines. When the Japanese overran the island nation in early 1942, some of his mates were captured. Many of those did not survive the Bataan Death March. He
never forgot his comrades who did not survive. It haunted him until the day he died. It would not be the last time Vinny would elude the Grim Reaper.
On December 7, 1941, young Private Carboni was lying in his cot in his barracks when the news of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor came over the radio. The leave papers he held in his hand were rescinded that day. The next day the US declared war on Japan and three days after that, war was declared on Germany. He would not see his family, friends or girlfriend for another four years.
Soon after the out-break of the war, there was another twist of fate awaiting Vinny. On the day his new class of radio operators graduated, their commanding officer told the entire class to line-up on the tarmac. As luck would have it, Vinny happened to be at one end of the line. Starting at the end opposite Vinny, the commanding officer began making assignments. He started with the heavy bombers, B-17s and B-24s, then medium bombers, B-26s and B-25s, and so forth until he got to the transports, C-47s, at Vinny's end of the line. Vinny would lament after the war that most of the men at the other end of that line never came home.
Vinny was ordered to the European Theater of Operations and was stationed near London, England. As days stretched into months and years, Vinny distinguished himself as someone who could be counted on when the going got tough. As the 8th Air Corps supported Patton's push through France and Belgium, time and again Vinny helped guide his aircraft home through unimaginable difficulties. On any given day, as they ferried soldiers to the front lines and brought back the wounded, they never knew if their landing strip in occupied Europe was in control of the enemy or the Allies; even if they had used the strip just the day before! Things weren't any easier when they were in the air. The Luftwaffe was bad enough, but as the C-47s returned to London each day they had to navigate through a maze of thick wire cables held aloft over the city by huge balloons. These cables were meant to damage German bombers but were a threat to Allied planes that didn't communicate clearly with ground controllers. Some American radiomen contributed to the demise of their own planes by using an incorrect frequency or improper volume.
During the long years of the war, Vinny received mail from his fiancee, Alda, nearly every day. Vinny befriended a wonderful English family and began spending more of his free time with them. He remained friends with the family long after the war and enjoyed numerous reunions with them on both sides of the Atlantic. One of his more memorable adventures during the war was the one way trip to Moscow. He was part of a crew that was ordered to deliver three C-47s to our allies, the Russians. He and his mates got the planes to Russia just fine, but were left without transport home. The men made the most of their plight. They hitched rides on other aircraft and hop-scotched across Europe back to England by way of Africa (where they rode camels at the Great Pyramids of Giza!). On another unforgettable mission, Vinny said he wore out his Rosary Beads as their two-engine Douglas C-47 attempted to cross the North Sea on one engine. In reality, it was Vinny's constant weather updates that assisted the pilot in determining if they should
abort the flight and return to Iceland or continue onto England (they made it safely to London).
At long last, on May 8, 1945, the terrible war with Germany was over. He was granted a brief furlough to return to the US before being shipped to the Pacific to finish the war with Japan. On August 11, 1945, he and Alda were married at St. Anthony's Catholic Church in New Haven, Connecticut. On August, 15, 1945, while honeymooning in Plymouth, Massachusetts, the war in Japan came to an abrupt end and Vinny and Alda were spared the agony of another long separation. That night as they came down from their room for dinner, they heard the unmistakable voice of President Truman on the radio announcing the end of the war with Japan. Vinny, dashingly attired in his dress uniform, was mobbed by the crowd in the hotel. He never tired of telling the story of that night, "the way everyone treated me, you would have thought I won the war all by myself!"
Vinny and Alda settled down in his hometown of Ridgefield. He returned to his job at the Edwards Company. Since Vinny was serving in the war, Edwards held his position for him for four years! He rose to be one of the company's most dependable plant managers. He retired from Edwards in 1977. Alda raised three children and in 1964 she went into business for herself when she opened the Candlelight Shoppe in Ridgefield. It was a huge success, and remains today an icon of Ridgefield's retail district. Vinny and Alda were inseparable for nearly 50 years. Vinny died on May 14, 1994. Eight grandchildren, who were the light of his life, survive him. He accomplished a great many things in his life, but, in his mind, his greatest accomplishment was serving his country in WWII and preserving freedom for his family and the families of his fellow soldiers, airmen, and seamen who did not come home.