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Community Corner

Sunny Hill resident on Honor Flight

     JOLIET – If Richard Katello had decided he’d rather kick a ball than fight for his country, his life would have been much different.

     Katello, 87, a resident of Sunny Hill Nursing Home of Will County, was one of 91 World War II veterans to travel to Washington D.C. on Honor Flight out of Midway Airport in Chicago on Wednesday, Oct. 2.

     “It’s been a wild day for me,” he said after finishing the parade through 1,500 cheering family, friends and Americans who just wanted to thank the returning veterans, including staff and volunteers from Sunny Hill. As yet another young serviceman stepped up to shake his hand and thank him for his service, he said, “It’s been like this all day.” He added he’d shaken “thousands of hands” that day.

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      The partial federal government shutdown had threatened the day’s activities, but between the people at Honor Flight in Chicago and elected officials in Washington they ensured the veterans and their entourage were allowed to pass through the blockades and still view the War memorials, including the one in their honor, said Mike Cozzi, a volunteer with the organization.

     In fact, because of the shutdown the men and women were the only ones there, getting to spend more time looking at the memorials as opposed to jostling through crowds. They also visited the Air and Space Museum and for the first time, a group from Honor Flight Chicago saw the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, he said.

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     They returned to a water cannon salute, a flag salute by motorcyclists and the parade, which included fire and police department bagpipers and the cheering admirers.

 

Followed his desire to serve

 

     But if Katello had listened to a pair of sports recruiters instead of following his desire to serve his country, he would never have joined the Coast Guard.

     A day after his graduation from Kelly Hill School in Chicago in June 1944, two men knocked on his door.  Both wanted the All-State fullback and forward to play professional soccer.

     “I said, ‘I’m sorry. I have to go to war,’” Katello said.

     Katello’s father died when Katello was 6. Richard Katello, as well as both of his brothers, Albert and Melvin, joined the Coast Guard and fought in World War II.

     He went off to physical camp at the Navy’s Amphibious Training Center in Camp Bradford, Norfolk, Va. During a break, he saw some fellow servicemen playing soccer. He watched for a while and then told the lieutenants in charge, “Those kids can’t play. They’re making all the wrong moves.”

     They challenged them to back up his words with some action. He joined the game. “I scored real quick.”  The next day the lieutenants sought him out and asked him to show them his moves and try to score again. He did both.

     Later he was called to the admiral’s office. “How would you like to be promoted ...  and be a soccer instructor here?” the admiral asked. Katello replied, “No, thank you. I came here to fight the Japanese, not to kick a ball.”

     Katello and 111 other men set sail on the LST 793 in September 1944, picking up 12 more hands during a stop in New Orleans.  They journeyed to Panama, Honolulu, then the beaches at Zamami, Shima, le Shima, Okinawa and, ultimately, Iwo Jima.

      “We traveled 55,000 miles on our ship,” Katello recalled

       It was at Iwo Jima that he met Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal, who took the famed picture of the raising of the United States flag in victory on Feb. 23, 1945.

      “We were parked in Iwo Jima along with the other ships,” Katello said. Rosenthal came aboard to photograph the crew a couple days later and the two started chatting. “He liked our conversation. We sat a few hours and talked …”

     Katello has a photo Rosenthal took of him and another guardsman on the ship.

 

After the war

     After the war, Katello returned to Chicago and took a job as a traveling insurance salesman, covering 17 states. He’d been there about a year when a young woman who played shortstop in Grant Park with her baseball team started working there. Frayn worked in cancellations.

     He and Frayn have been married 67 years and share a room at Sunny Hill. They have three sons, Greg (Toni) of Lockport, Bob (Susan) of Tinley Park, Don (Susan) of McKinney, Texas, four grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

     Before coming to Sunny Hill, the couple lived in Tinley Park.

     It was Sunny Hill Activity Director Danette Krieger who thought about applying to Honor Flight for Richard Katello. She approached his son, Bob Katello.

     “They asked me,” he said, “and I said ‘Send him.’”

     Between work and his personal life, the elder Katello has traveled across the United States. One place he had never been, until Wednesday, Oct. 2, was Washington, D.C.

     And as he said, it was “a wild day,” and one he will never forget.

     Sunny Hill Nursing Home of Will County, 421 Doris Ave., is owned by Will County and is under County Executive Larry Walsh. For additional information, go to www.willcountyillinois.com or find Sunny Hill on Facebook.

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