[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 36 (Monday, February 27, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E441]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

                             [[Page E441]]

        IN MEMORY OF LUCIAN C. CRUTCHFIELD AND WILLIAM F. BROOKS

                                 ______


                        HON. MICHAEL R. McNULTY

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                       Monday, February 27, 1995
  Mr. McNULTY. Mr. Speaker, on March 5, 1995, in a small town in 
northern Italy two United States B-25 Airmen, 2d Lt. Lucian C. 
Crutchfield of San Antonio, TX and Flight Officer William F. Brooks of 
Cohoes, NY, both killed during World War II, will be recognized at a 
ceremony in which a granite memorial will be dedicated in their honor. 
Mr. Larry Pisoni, now a U.S. citizen, and coordinator of the event 
entitled ``Thank You America,'' explains his realization of a lifelong 
dream in the attached article which appeared in the Capital, an 
Annapolis, MD, newspaper, on February 7, 1995.
                    [From the Capital, Feb. 7, 1995]

   Annapolis man plans return to Italy to dedicate monument for U.S. 
                                 fliers

                           (By Michael Cody)

       In the 50 years since Nazi soldiers executed two U.S. 
     airmen near his hometown in Italy, Lorenzo Pisoni has taken 
     America's heroes as his own.
       Next month, 12 miles from Vezzano and thousands of miles 
     from his new home in Annapolis, Mr. Pisoni 57, will dedicate 
     a monument to 2nd Lt. Lucian C. Crutchfield of San Antonio, 
     Texas, and Flight Officer William F. Brooks of Cohoes, N.Y.
       They were among a crew of seven aboard a B-25 bomber that 
     was shot down on Feb. 27, 1945, while trying to cripple a 
     railroad through the Adige River valley.
       Mr. Pisoni was 7 then, and was called ``Enzo'' by family 
     and friends. He was having lunch in a second-story room when 
     he saw each member of the crew bail out, and each parachute 
     open.
       Many years later, while examining U.S. documents, Mr. 
     Pisoni confirmed that the plane went down at 11:57 a.m., just 
     as he was eating his meal. From 1943, when Allied bombing 
     began in earnest, until the end of the war, he never saw 
     another plane destroyed.
       Some of the B-25 crew members were taken prisoner by Nazi 
     soldiers. Others escaped capture with help from brave, anti-
     Nazi partisans.
       ``It was risky. The German law compelled them to turn them 
     in right away. If they didn't, they could have killed them--
     they had to keep the people in terror,'' Mr. Pisoni said.
       The feared SS took 2nd Lt. Crutchfield, the co-pilot, and 
     Flight Officer Brooks into custody.
       The next day, Enzo went to his little town's square. He 
     doesn't remember why. Possibly it was the rumor of American 
     prisoners that drew him.
       He saw the prisoners, led by two Nazis--one tall, and one 
     small.
       The Americans looked healthy and honest, not at all the 
     monsters described in Nazi propaganda.
       The group walked out of town, south ward toward Arco, a 
     much larger city. Along the mountain trail in the Italian 
     Alps, partisans said, 2nd Lt. Crutchfield slipped. Flight 
     Officer Brooks stooped to help him.
       Both were shot and killed. The SS reported they were trying 
     to escape.
       ``They just mowed them down,'' said Charles Reagin, of 
     Cory, Ind., the plane's radio operator, who was captured 
     separately and spent the rest of the war in a prison camp.
       The news traveled quickly, even among a populace hardened 
     to conflict.
       ``My life was greatly influenced by this episode,'' Mr. 
     Pisoni said. ``They (the SS) said they wanted to escape, but 
     no one believed that.''
       And long after the war, when he had graduated from an Ohio 
     college and had become a U.S. citizen, Lorenzo ``Larry'' 
     Pisoni drove past the spot in Italy and thought of the men 
     who died for another country as well as their own.
       ``It's time to say thank you,'' he said, describing a March 
     5 ceremony he helped plan. The airmen's survivors and 12,500 
     Italian families are invited.
       The regional administration of Trentino-Alto Adige has lent 
     its support to the event, and a local stonecutter has donated 
     granite for the monument.
       ``At this spot, on Feb. 28, 1945, two American airmen were 
     shot by Nazis,'' its tablet will say, in two languages. They 
     were two of more than 38,000 Americans who gave their lives 
     on Italian soil during World War II to help Europeans of good 
     will regain freedom and democracy.''
       An Alpine bank is practicing American songs in honor of 2nd 
     Lt. Crutchfield.
       Mr. Pisoni, who splits his time between Annapolis and 
     Vezzano, said he expects all five surviving crew members to 
     attend, including Mr. Reagin, pilot Jay DeBoer of Virginia 
     Beach, Va., and navigator Robert Cravey of Thomaston, Ga.
       Mr. DeBoer escaped from the Germans crossing the Swiss 
     border disguised as a monk, while Mr. Cravey was hidden by an 
     Italian family.
       ``It's going to be an emotional thing,'' said Mr. Reagin, a 
     retired Air Force master sergeant. ``Not only going back with 
     the guys, but going to that spot.''
       Mr. Pisoni, owner of Gourmet Italia, a pasta-importing 
     firm, said he didn't start the monument effort to reconstruct 
     what happened. ``I like to consider this a symbol of what the 
     United States has done for Europe. The U.S. is the only 
     country in the world that has helped its former enemies.''
     

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