Inside an American Aero Service hangar in New Smyrna Beach, World War II planes are restored.  

  • Four World War II veterans visit planes of the era
  • Planes bring back memories of the war
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“It’s something you never forget,” said Tony Mastrogiacomo.

Staring up at the planes like excited children are Tony and three other men close to his age.

“It’s memories in the old airplanes, in the old bombers, it all brings back memories,” Leroy Beissel.  

All four men served in WWII.

“I come out here and crawl up in the tail turret, I can still get in there,” said Major Joe Reus.  

Reus was a navigator, Beissel and Sam Mastrogiacomo were gunners, and Tony was infantry. Reus is 94, Beissel is 91, Sam is 95 and Tony is 94.

“I am working on being the last living combat soldier for the Eighth Air Force,” jokes Reus.  

Thinking back to 1941, each man said he was ready and willing to answer the call of service after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

“I wanted to go. An 18, 19-year-old mentality, I was going to go there and lick all of the Germans by myself,” said Beissel.

“We wouldn’t have missed it, we were that age,” said Reus.  

Each man also knows the horrors of war and what it does to soldiers.

“We get up 50 yards from the woods, and they slaughtered us. Killing guys like crazy,” said Tony, recalling a mission in Europe.

“I flew two missions, got shot down both times,” said Reus.

“The veterans holidays really get to you. You really feel it,” said Sam with tears in his eyes.  

A day before the Fourth of July, the Mastrogiacomo brothers certainly have their fallen friends on their minds.  

“God was good to the ones that came back,” said Tony. “And the only heroes there is, are the ones that gave their lives.”

Tony does not consider himself a hero. All four of them remember those days hunkered down in the mud or up in a plane staring at the enemy. They remember the randomness of who lived and who died.

“Sometimes you remember every little detail, and then the next time you remember you forget about half of it. It’s really frustrating sometimes,” said Beissel.  

War taught these men many things, and one was to set aside differences.

“They had Italian neighborhoods, they had the Polish neighborhoods, they had the German neighborhoods, the Irish neighborhoods, the Jewish neighborhoods. Once WWII happened, and we are all, we are all together, realizing we are Americans,” said Sam. “Our main thing is we are all Americans, and we are all going to defend our country.”

The men believe there is a true lesson in that fact. A lesson people can practice today.

“People should remember that we are all Americans,” said Tony.