Rita Salvo

I was a student nurse in Kings County Hospital, Brooklyn, N.Y. during the war and a member of the U.S. Cadet Nurse Corps. Our only obligation was to stay in essential nursing for the remainder of World War II. During my last six months of training, a group of us was allowed to spend it at the V.A. hospital in the Kingsbridge area of the Bronx, right on the Hudson River. We took care of the veterans who were wounded in the war -- paraplegics, amputees, T.B. of the bone, and all kinds of injuries. I met Gus, my husband, through on eof my roommates, and we were married in 1949. He is now 95 years old and still active. He had spent three years on a destroyer in the Pacific (U.S.S. Bagley 386). The ship received 12 battle stars for all the engagements in the Pacific, including the attack on Pearl Harbor. Gus has 11 battle stars as he joined the ship after Pearl Harbor. The Bagley was in the harbor at the battle of Iwo Jima and Gus saw (through binoculars) the raising of the flag on Mt. Suribachi.We moved from Yonkers, N.Y. to Ahwatukee, which is a retirement complex in Phoenix, Arizona, in 1979. We have enjoyed our lifestyle here and have adapted to the hot summer temperatures. Our son and his family (three grandkids and wife, Sue) still live in Westchester County, N.Y. and come to visit as often as they can.