He sings, he laughs, he’s had a fascinating life enjoying his children, half dozen grandchildren and two great grandchildren. And Vitollo, better known as Bud, has a host of fascinating and engaging stories from every phase of his life to remember as he looks back on more than 90 years. Best of all, he has a great ability to recall and tell the exciting sagas in great detail.
The nonagenarian who lives in the New Monmouth section of Middletown, was born in East Orange and raised in Newark. But in 1954, when he and his wife visited friends in Monmouth County, they fell in love with the area, and bought their home here in spite of his having to commute to Harrison daily for his job. There’s no doubt he loves the house and all its memories…he is still living there! “Ad communing wasn’t bad at all,” he recalls, “I just took the train from Middletown and was there.”
Bud, who has many friends in the Chorus of the Atlantic Red Bank Barbershop Quartet and has attended so many of their immensely popular events, enjoys singing as well saying “I think I’m a baritone!” but great with a tune regardless.
Retired from a life of creating the molds for the intricate patterns for heavy metal work such as sewer covers and other heavy materials poured and made in the molds, Bud still enjoys some hearty laughter when reminded of the intricacy and exactness of the work he did so successfully.
It goes back to his grammar school days in the late 1930s and early 1940s when Mr. Schaffer was a teacher, he’ll never forget.
“After seeing my work in class in arithmetic and figuring out things, using a ruler and such,” Bud laughs, “he told me I couldn’t even draw a straight line! And maybe I couldn’t then!”, continues, along with another great burst of laughter, “but I could do it in the end and was really good” at that intricate work at his job in Harrison creating the molds with precision and perfection.
His job came only after graduation from high school in 1946 and his draft the month before into the US Army at the closure of World War II. He completed his basic training in Mississippi and was eventually transferred to Roswell, New Mexico, after completing six months of training to be a radio operator in the army. “There were no letters on the keys,” he chuckles, “I just had to know them!”
It was 1947 when he was transferred to Roswell New Mexico, where, while he didn’t know it at the time, he was there for a piece of history that is still filled with mystery, intrigue and US Army intelligence silence.
Bud was at the Rosell army base in 1947 when suddenly the entire base was ordered into shutdown. There were unknown reasons for this, he recalls, and it wasn’t overly exciting.
During the three-day lockdown, however, there were a few things the young GI noticed. Not only was General Curtis LeMay on base, but so were “General Eisenhower and General MacArthur and more top officers of all kinds then you could count.” There was a lot of activity going on then” Still, with the base clothed in secrecy, the soldiers had no idea what was going on, or how long it would last.
It was only months later when the public learned of Project Mogul, a top secret project by the US Army Air Forces involving microphones flown on high-altitude balloons. Their primary purpose was for long-distance detection of sound waves generated by Soviet atomic bomb tests.
However, when one of the ballons launched from the base crashed in the desert and was brought to the army base by those thinking it was a weather balloon. The military covered up the true nature of the balloon and the ever-growing conspiracy theories among UFO enthusiasts flooded the nation. Throughout the year, the military was continued to assert it was a weather balloon and not a UFO as so many thought, nor any studies of sound waves to tract enemy bomb tests.
But the three-day shutdown of the massive base is something a young GI will never forget.
Bud also remembers more exciting times in the Army when he was on duty in the firehouse when a B29 took off, smoke was detected coming out from the engines, and a wheel had spun off, landing the bomber in a ditch with fuel spilling throughout the area and fire rapidly spreading.. The plane’s complement of both enlisted and primarily army officers were out of the plane and on top of the cabin because of the pending fire.
Bud as the driver, with an assistant in the truck with him, drove into the wreckage to save the men. The truck was scorched, the men were all saved, and Bud was put up for the Silver Star. That he did not receive, because his bravery took place in a non-battle or war situation. However, he did receive a lifesaving medal and numerous commendations for his heroism.
Bud served in the Army until October of 1947, joining the Ari Force Reserve and then being recalled to serve in Korea,
Today, he is a 90-something gentleman and veteran who served in two wars, spent a lifetime helping others and can recall so many of the exciting and even mundane years of his long and happy life..
Read About Some Other Great Veterans HERE
