Salvatore Schillaci
Bio
Salvatore Schillaci was born on December 6, 1929 in Buffalo, New York. Drafted into the United States Army in 1951, he served in Korea as an Army rifleman doing nighttime recon missions. He was wounded in a nighttime mission in 1952, and was discharged from the army. Fortunately, he received exemplary care, for his wound, from the VA hospital. Upon his return home, Salvatore Schillaci, under the GI Bill, earned two degrees in geology. He now serves as the Chaplain for his Korean War Veteran’s post in New York.
Video Clips
The Wounding of Rifleman Salvatore Schillaci in 1952
Salvatore Schillaci suffered an abdominal wound during a nighttime reconnaissance mission. His Sergeant ordered him to take an enemy's machine gun. Unfortunately, as he walked forward, the enemy opened fire. The VA hospital gave him great care upon his return to the United States.
"Pieces of His Body Were Flying Around."
Salvatore Schillaci thinks about the bad things that happened when he has nothing else to do. A friend of his stepped on a mine and was killed. When he himself was injured, he returned home to receive hospital care in Massachusetts. Upon recovery, he returned to university to study geology on the GI Bill.
Always C Rations
Salvatore Schillaci doesn't recall where he landed when he arrived in Korea in 1951. As part of a reconnaissance team, they slept in foxholes or even on the open ground. He remembers extreme cold and C Rations. Once he tried unsuccessfully to heat up a can of pork and beans on the exhaust manifold of a truck.