Frank J. Perconte

Frank Perconte recalled as hero in war, everyday life

Article by Bob Okon (Added with his permission) Herald-News – Joliet, IL - October 28, 2013

Frank Perconte found fame late in his life when he and others who fought in a parachute unit in World War II were depicted in the book and TV miniseries "Band of Brothers."

But Perconte was remembered by family at his funeral Monday as much for the way he lived his life after the war. Perconte, 96, died Thursday at his home in Joliet.

In World War II, he was a member of an Army unit that parachuted into Normandy in the triumphant D-Day invasion and later into Holland in the failed Operation Market Garden campaign that was depicted in the movie "A Bridge Too Far."

He also fought in the Battle of the Bulge, where Perconte was wounded. He received a Purple Heart and many other war medals.

Perconte served in Easy Company, part of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division, known as the "Screaming Eagles." He was among the soldiers whose war experience was depicted in historian Stephen Ambrose's book "Band of Brothers." Perconte also was portrayed on film when "Band of Brothers" was turned into a TV miniseries of the same name.

In his eulogy, Darren Perconte remembered how his grandfather joked at one point when his battle heroics were getting attention that "so many people are calling me a hero I'm starting to believe I am one."

"I believe he was a hero," Darren said.

He told of his grandfather's devotion for four years to his late wife, Evelyn, after she went into a nursing home with Alzheimer's disease.

"My grandfather was there every day, all day," he said. "It went beyond that it was the right thing to do. This is what he wanted to do."

The Rev. Brad Baker, who said the funeral Mass at the Cathedral of St. Raymond Nonnatus, where Perconte was a parishioner, described him as a man who "did his duty" both during the war and afterward.

"May Frank now know the reward of his labors," Baker said in his homily. "We are so grateful that he knew his duty."

Perconte led a simple life as a mailman. He and Evelyn had one son. Perconte was an usher at St. Raymond's and a life member at Cantigny Veteran of Foreign Wars Post 367 in Joliet.

Baker reflected on a conversation with Perconte's son, Richard, who told him that although the war experience was a large part of his father's life, Frank "always kept his feet on the ground. His approach was they were only doing their jobs."

"He was always Frank Perconte," Darren said during his eulogy. "He was authentic."

Perconte was in his mid-80s when the HBO miniseries was made. Produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, the 10-part series shined a light on the wartime heroism of Perconte and other soldiers of Easy Company.

Perconte told The Herald-News in 2003 that at his wife's nursing home, they called him "Mr. Hollywood." He went to Los Angeles in 2002 to join 40 other veterans from Easy Company on stage for the Emmy Awards. He also joined his old comrades when HBO flew Easy Company veterans to Normandy in 2001.

Perconte developed a friendship with Jamie Madeo, the actor who played him in "Band of Brothers." Madeo visited Perconte in Joliet a few times, and Perconte told The Herald-News that the two of them stayed in touch.

The attention paid to Perconte and other World War II veterans late in their lives reflected a renewed appreciation for the ordinary soldiers who freed Europe, kept the world safe for democracy and made up what Tom Brokaw called in his 1998 book the "greatest generation."

At Perconte's funeral was Al Mampre, a medic from the 101st Airborne Division, who lives in Skokie and saw Perconte in August when he brought a teacher from France who wanted to visit Perconte. The teacher, Mampre said, makes a point of taking students to Normandy and knew of the "Band of Brothers."

Perconte fought in some of the most horrible battles of World War II and was able to return home and resume a normal life. In a 2004 interview with late Herald-News columnist John Whiteside, Perconte said his most vivid memory of D-Day was walking along a road that was lined on both sides with the bodies of hundreds of dead German soldiers.

Perconte also said he wanted to parachute out of the plane on D-Day because so many aircraft were being shot down while he was waiting for the order to jump.

"I'm glad I went into the paratroopers," he said in another Whiteside interview. "But surviving in combat is a lot of luck."

The comment reflected an ability to deal with circumstances that was evident in other things Perconte said or did over the years. His grandson described him as "blunt" with a great sense of humor.

And when Whiteside wrote a column about Perconte's all-day visits with his wife in the nursing home — combing her hair and taking home her laundry to do — Perconte talked about his regrets that Evelyn's loss of memory made it impossible for her to follow her grandchildrens' graduations. "It doesn't do any good to cry now," Perconte said in the interview. "I do what I've got to do because I love doing it for her. I love my wife."

The man who had faced so much death and destruction in war and viewed his survival as a matter of luck appeared to treasure the simple things back home.

Tony Arellano, commander of the Cantigny VFW Post, led other veterans from the post at a brief memorial service Monday at Blackburn-Giegerich-Sonntag Funeral Home before Perconte's funeral. Arellano said he saw Perconte about a week ago when he brought him some of the chicken that Mary Mahalik makes at the post.

"He always loved Mary's chicken," Arellano said.

Asked to describe Perconte, he said, "He was just a common ordinary person. He did some extraordinary things."

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Frank Perconte, age 96, passed away on Thursday, October 24, 2013. He was born in Joliet and was a lifelong resident.

Frank was a veteran of World War II, serving proudly with the U.S. Army, 101st Airborne "Screaming Eagles". He was a life member of Cantigny Post V.F.W. #367 and St. Raymond Seniors. He retired from the U.S. Postal Service as a carrier.

He is survived by his devoted son, Richard (Gloria) Perconte; two grandsons, Jeff (Ryanne) Perconte and Darren Perconte and one sister, JoAnn, (late Bill) Clennon; numerous nieces and nephews also survive.

Frank was preceded in death by his loving wife, Evelyn (nee Welch) Perconte; his sister, Mildred Pirc-Dutkiweicz, and a brother, Jack (late Mary) Perconte.

Visitation will be on Monday morning at the funeral home from 8:30 a.m. until 10:00 a.m.

Funeral services: Monday, October 28, 2013 at 10:00 a.m. from the Blackburn-Giegerich-Sonntag Funeral Home to the Cathedral of St. Raymond for mass at 10:30 a.m.

Arrangements by: Tapella Funeral Services at Blackburn-Giegerich-Sonntag Funeral Home.

• ************** Memorial Day visit with Joliet's Frank Perconte, the oldest living member of the Band of Brothers By John Ruane, May 28, 2012 at 2:49 pm Beginning in the 1950s, Frank Perconte walked his mail route in Joliet for more than 30 years, in a neighborhood very close to his own home. The residents just knew him as Frank or "There goes the mailman." There he is, right on time, our slim, energetic Italian mailman, with the brisk walk as he shuffled the mail in his hands, hopping up the two porch steps to place the envelopes into the mailbox on the red-bricked wall. His mailman's uniform always crisp and clean, his gait always quick. Frank walked the streets of Joliet with little notice for those 30 years, except by those who knew him well, including those he would see often at Louis' Restaurant on Jefferson Street. They knew Frank was a longtime mailman, but they also knew he had done much more in his life as a member of Easy Company in the 101st Airborne, now known to the world as the Band of Brothers. Frank grew up in Joliet and attended St. Mary's Catholic Grammar School and then Joliet Township High School. This was the time of the Great Depression and college was never a thought. Thanks to a connection to a fellow named Richie Gleason, Frank and his best friend, Herman Hanson, were able to land jobs at a steel company in Gary, Indiana in 1935. Jobs were hard to find and a 45-minute drive to Gary, before I-80 was built, was no inconvenience for the two 18 year-old high school graduates. Frank was working as a crane operator in the spring of 1942, when the young Italian and his pal Herman were sitting in Joliet's famed Rialto Theater watching a preview to the film which showed the new airborne division being formed called the paratroopers, which paid soldiers an extra $50 a month. "This was just before we knew we would get drafted, so that's all we had to hear," said Frank. "Herman and I both joined. It was good because we knew what branch of the service we would be going into." Frank and Herman became members of the 506th Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division, Easy Company under the leadership of another soldier from the Chicago area, the now infamous Captain Herbert Sobel. They reported to Camp Toccoa in Northeast Georgia in July of 1942. They were together for a short while, but when those in charge saw that the two Joliet soldiers were good friends and enjoyed goofing around, Herman was assigned to a different platoon in the 506. Frank continued under the strict and harsh Sobel, training for four months, running up and down Currahee Mountain, which led to the unit's proud chant of "Currahee!" Having lived in Atlanta for more than a decade, I drove to Currahee with three of my kids to see the famed mountain. Currahee was like many Georgia mountains we had come to know all too well from our days traveling to Blue Ridge. It was steep and slippery as we tried to drive up the white cinder covered hill. Only a couple hundred feet up, we turned around and felt lucky that we didn't slide down the mountain and over the cliff. I couldn't imagine trying to run up and down that three-mile mountain three times a week. "It was nothing for us, we were young guys," said Perconte. To the right of the mountain was an open field with three-foot high sunburnt straw-like grass, which is where the camp had been set up for the training. We were told it was all taken down in 1945 and the only visual memory of the Band of Brothers was a few miles away in a small museum in the town of Toccoa. The artifacts, guns, helmets, medals, photos were all nicely presented in a small old dusty wooden building, covering the history of the 506th Regiment. It's a great history lesson for anyone interested in World War II. Having moved back to the Chicagoland area, and realizing I was now living only 10 minutes from Joliet, where Frank Perconte resided, my 21 year-old son Sean and I made the drive out for an interview. Sean just graduated as a history major from Lewis University where he studied wars, so he was equally interested in this project. After reading three of the books associated with the Band of Brothers, it was quite a treat to be able to walk into the home of the oldest surviving member of the Band of Brothers, and only one left alive in the Chicagoland area. He is 95 years old now and his home is neat and clean and well organized. It looks like the home of a soldier who hasn't lost the discipline taught to him. Two sets of silverware are arranged perfectly on the small gray kitchen table, napkins folded, not a dirty dish in the sink, everything neat and clean. If you have read the Band of Brothers books, you know that Frank's stories were not long, setting up my expectation for the interview, short answers. That's exactly what I received. Had Tom Hanks and Steven Speilberg not produced the HBO series, Band of Brothers, Frank would be an old man sitting in his living room who no-one, outside of his friends and family, would have acknowledged. But with the series came recognition, which Frank and anyone who has been in his position, will appreciate quietly. "When I go into Louis' restaurant now, they say, there's Frank Perconte," said the remarkably healthy-looking 95 year-old, whose life could have been snuffed out in a blink of an eye, 68 years earlier by a German machine gunner. Instead, he landed safely in an open field near Ste. Mere du Mont, France in the early morning of June 6, 1944. Frank was lucky to land with a group of his Easy Company soldiers around him that included Carwood Lipton, Frank Luz, William Boyle, and Pat Christenson. It was pitch dark and they had never trained for a jump at night. During the training, the unit had to do five jumps in broad daylight before they got a nickel of pay. They had trained for two straight years from Toccoa to Ft. Benning, Georgia to England. So by the time they jumped on D-Day, one might surmise Frank was not afraid to jump. "The hell I wasn't!" he said laughing. "I remember we took off just after 1:20 and I sat in the back of the plane. They called it a stick. Well, I jumped out and landed in a field. I'm glad it wasn't a road or that could have been rough." Frank's closest call came during the Battle of the Bulge, just outside the town of Foy. He pulled himself up over a fence, which was a mound of dirt, to see if he could spot the enemy. They spotted him first and shot him and his Easy Company buddies let him know it right away. "They all started yelling, Perconte got shot in the ass, Perconte got shot in the ass," he said. The bullet passed right through his buttocks and out the front of his right thigh. "It was the best thing that ever happened to me," said Frank. "I was a disabled veteran and got a pension." He was only in the aid station for a short time outside Foy before he was back on the front line with his Easy Company buddies. Movies and television mini-series will never be the best resource for history, but provide a big picture of what events may have looked like, may have felt like; more of a feel for the experience than a resource for facts. Frank Perconte thinks the Band of Brothers is a wonderful mini-series, depicting the experiences and battles of Easy Company fairly accurately for the most part. "There were some exaggerations," he said. Captain Ronald Spears was presented as a cold-blooded killer in the Band of Brothers, shooting a group of captured German soldiers on D-Day. In the series, due to the reputation Spears gained from that murderous event, the soldiers under his command looked somewhat fearful of their tough Captain. Was Frank afraid of Spears? "Oh you mean the thing about him gunning down 20 guys," he said with a rye smile. "No, that was all baloney. Never happened." There is another exaggerated scene in the series which involves Frank, who was portrayed by James Madio in 9 episodes of the 10-part series. The scene took place after the Haguenau river crossings, when the war is winding down and Easy Company was is in a town in Germany. Frank is ordered to go out with a group of four other members of Easy Company to scout the woods for German soldiers. As they are walking through the woods joking with each other, they hear something and start walking carefully looking for a German sniper. That's when Frank spots a concentration camp. The next scene shows him sprinting through the woods and back to the headquarters to find Lieutenant Winters. He alerts Winters to the scouting group's finding and the Lieutenant leads a convoy of army trucks to the camp. A few members of Easy Company cut the lock off the gate and enter the camp. It's one of the most memorable scenes in the series. What really happened? Frank's company was marching along a path in the forest when they could smell something horrible. That's when the men of Easy spotted a concentration camp. They viewed it from the outside but were told to keep marching, an outfit coming up behind them would take care of it. "We didn't go in there," said Frank. "It smelled so bad, stinky." When asked about Captain Herbert Sobel, one of the few other Chicagoans in Easy Company, Frank never met up with him after the war, because like most, he had no love for Sobel. "Spears took over the company after they got rid of Sobel," he explained. "I don't know how they got rid of him, but they got rid of him." David Webster, who was a Harvard-educated writer, was shown throughout Band of Brothers chronicling his war experience into a diary. After the war, Webster wrote for the Wall Street Journal and authored memoirs about his experience in World War II as well as a book about sharks. He was unable to get his memoirs published. In September of 1961, he sailed from Santa Monica, California to go shark fishing and was never seen again. It took the popularity of Band of Brothers and historian Stephen Ambrose to get Webster's memoirs published in 2002. "He was an odd guy, David Webster," said Frank, perhaps not realizing that a fellow like Webster with his background, upbringing and education wouldn't really fit in with a group of regular guys. "He never said much to anyone. Very quiet." Frank fought in most of the Easy Company battles and only had the one wound, which is remarkable, given the casualties of those who fought in the Battle of the Bulge. He was there with his Toccoa buddies in Hitler's Eagle's Nest at Berchtesgaden, enjoying the Fuhrer's finest liquor. "That's where Hitler used to hang out," said Frank. "He was an evil man, the most hated man in the world at that time." In February of 1942, on a leave from Ft. Benning, Frank married Evelyn Welch and they had their first child, a boy, who they named Richard. Because he was married with a child, he was one of the first to be released from the paratroopers in the summer of 1945. For many of the others in Easy Company, it was quite a long process. So there he sits in his brown reclining chair in his front room in Joliet, in the same house he has lived in since he built it in the early 1950s. He knows he was very lucky to survive the war, lucky to be alive at 95, the oldest living member of Easy Company, still enjoying life, watching sports. The Yankees are his favorite baseball team and he has watched both Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth play in Comiskey Park. He takes walks using his walker, and often some of his neighbors will join him now. He is Frank Perconte, one of the Band of Brothers, a living war hero, a quiet legend. Tom Hanks and Steven Speilberg won many awards for the Band of Brothers, all well deserved. But perhaps the greatest reward comes in the understanding that they have produced such a monumental and memorable series that has elevated the service and sacrifice of all the soldiers who fought in World War II, as well as the soldiers who fought in all of the other wars for America. It helps create a greater appreciation for those who make the ultimate commitment.
• Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Jan 25 2018, 11:57:12 UTC