[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 79 (Friday, June 14, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1053-E1054]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    REMEMBERING WORLD WAR II HERO GINO MERLI, MEDAL OF HONOR WINNER

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. PAUL E. KANJORSKI

                            of pennsylvania

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, June 13, 2002

  Mr. KANJORSKI. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the memory of a 
great American, Gino J. Merli of Peckville, PA. Mr. Merli passed away 
Tuesday at the age of 78, and with his passing, we have lost a true 
American hero.
  I would like to insert here the two articles which appeared in the 
Scranton Times and Tribune on Wednesday about Mr. Merli, who 
exemplified the best of America's ``Greatest Generation.''

                       WWII Hero Gino Merli Dies

                           (By David Falchek)

       Gino Merli didn't embrace fame or his role of war hero.
       Yet he accepted them as he lived his life, with a sense of 
     duty.
       So the man who rarely talked about the event that earned 
     him the Medal of Honor responded to every letter praising him 
     for his heroic deeds.
       Mr. Merli died Tuesday at his Peckville home. He was 78.
       On the night of Sept. 4, 1944, Army Pvt. Merli was manning 
     a machine gun when German forces attacked near Sars la 
     Bruyere, Belgium. The outnumbered U.S. forces began their 
     retreat, but Pvt. Merli held his position, providing cover 
     fire. Under attack with his fellow soldiers dying around him, 
     he played possum.
       When the Germans turned their attention to the retreating 
     men, Pvt. Merli rose from the ground and fired, repeating the 
     ploy again and again.
       When he returned from World War II, his duty became serving 
     other veterans. For 34 years, he was an adjudication officer 
     at the VA Medical Center in Plains Township.
       When veterans, unaware of Mr. Merli's record, talked about 
     their war experiences, he never mentioned his own.
       ``He never put himself or his experiences against anyone 
     else's,'' explained friend and Marine veteran Ike Refice. 
     ``You never saw him point to himself or say `Look at me. I 
     have this medal.' ''
       Not much changed in the time since he received a hero's 
     welcome in Scranton in 1945 or walked the beaches of Normandy 
     with Tom Brokaw in 1984.
       In 1945, he told a cheering crowd of 500 people at the 
     Hotel Casey that he'd ``rather be on the battlefield any day 
     than make a speech.''
       Yet, in a letter he sent to admirers, he wrote that he may 
     have been motivated by ``my dead buddies or my hatred of 
     war.''
       NBC News anchor and author Tom Brokaw remembers Mr. Merli 
     always talking of other soldiers, rather than himself.
       ``He was a reluctant warrior, full of modesty and 
     humility,'' Mr. Brokaw said. ``The fact that he went to a 
     church and prayed for men he had killed through the night was 
     typical of him.''
       Mr. Merli was an inspiration for Mr. Brokaw's book ``The 
     Greatest Generation.'' The two met often. When Mr. Brokaw 
     began writing his book about ordinary people doing 
     extraordinary things, he said he was thinking about Gino 
     Merli.
       ``I came to love him,'' Mr. Brokaw said.
       Mr. Merli helped change how local people defined 
     ``American.''
       During World War II, Italy's alignment with Axis countries 
     stoked anti-Italian and antiimmigrant sentiments. Italian 
     Americans often found their patriotism questioned.
       Gino Merli's heroics helped many in Lackawanna County see 
     beyond ethnicity, said his son, Gino Merli Jr.
       ``When people saw my father come home and heard what he 
     did, it changed their perception about what it means to be 
     American,'' he said. ``People saw the first- and second-
     generation immigrants sacrificing life and limb for the 
     United States and for freedom.''
       In 1994, Mr. Refice and Mr. Merli visited Europe to retrace 
     their steps through Europe. Oddly, the rural area where Mr. 
     Merli held back Nazi troops was unchanged.
       They met a Belgian man who, at the age of 16, watched Mr. 
     Merli confound the Nazis again and again. During their visit, 
     the town put a monument in the village common thanking Mr. 
     Merli.
       In his final days, he still shied away from speeches. But 
     he did like to stand before a crowd for one purpose, Mr. 
     Refice said. He enjoyed leading a crowd in the Pledge of 
     Allegiance.
       Lately, Parkinson's disease and a heart ailment held him 
     back.
       As a final encore last Saturday, the History Channel showed 
     Roger Mudd's special on the Big Red One, the first infantry 
     division, which featured Mr. Merli.
       In letters he sent to admirers, Mr. Merli wrote:

[[Page E1054]]

       ``Not everyone can be a Medal of Honor recipient. But 
     everyone can take pride in himself--have pride in his 
     heritage. We must always keep trying to better ourselves and 
     our surrounding and we must never quit. Always remember 
     America is you and me.''

                                  ____
                                  

              Merli Held Position So His Unit Could Escape

                           (By David Falchek)

       At age of 18, Gino Merli was barely an adult and hadn't 
     even graduated from high school.
       Yet he became a hero.
       Before he faced his greatest challenge as a gunner with the 
     1st Infantry Division, he had survived landing on Normandy 
     and two subsequent battle injuries.
       Pvt. Merli was a machine gunner near Sars la Bruyere, 
     Belgium, on the night of Sept. 4, 1944, when German forces 
     attacked.
       As the outnumbered and outgunned GIs started retreating, 
     Pvt. Merli held his position to provide cover fire as a 
     tightening circle of German troops closed in on him. Tracer 
     bullets and grenades blew up before him. His assistant gunner 
     was killed, the cooling system of his gun was destroyed and 
     death appeared certain. He slumped next to his dead 
     colleagues, feigning mortal injury. German soldiers poked the 
     bodies and turned them over with bayonets. Pvt. Merli didn't 
     budge.
       When the Germans advanced to pursue U.S. troops, Pvt. Merli 
     sprang up, shooting in all directions. As new waves of 
     Germans approached, he repeated the shot/play dead sequence.
       In a speech in Scranton in 1945, Sgt. Milton V. Kokoszka 
     recalled that horrible night.
       ``I saw (Pvt. Merli) had not been taken prisoner and after 
     we moved some distance I would hear our machine gun open fire 
     again,'' he said. ``I saw different enemy groups move into 
     the emplacement and each time the gun would stop, and then 
     start firing again as soon as they left. He had pretended to 
     be dead.''
       During the night, he watched a silhouette of a German 
     soldier in the moonlight. The German knew his routine, Pvt. 
     Merli thought, and was waiting for him to move. Although 
     technically the enemy, Pvt. Merli felt a connection to the 
     soldier he referred to as ``that German boy'' for the rest of 
     his life.
       The Germans sustained heavy losses at the nearby front, and 
     700 surrendered. The allies found Pvt. Merli the next day. He 
     was covered in the assistant gunner's blood and his clothing 
     was in tatters from bayonet jabs.
       Around him were 52 dead Germans, 19 directly in front of 
     his gun.
       Pvt. Merli's only request was to visit a church.
       He prayed for the men he had killed and for the safety of 
     the German soldier he had watched through the night.

  Mr. Speaker, we see the bravery and dedication of Gino Merli being 
carried on today in the men and women who are fighting our new war on 
terrorism. All of us in Northeastern Pennsylvania are proud to claim 
Mr. Merli as one of our own, and I join my fellow residents of 
Northeastern Pennsylvania in sending best wishes and condolences to his 
family.

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