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7/13/2012 3:25 PM
Dear sir/madam,
Today I went to Groesbeek to search for remains of the second
world war with my metal detector. To the north of Groesbeek I
found an empty bullet case that was closed at the end. I heard
about closed bullet cases that contained personal notes before so
I was a little curious to find out if this could be such a
bullet case. When I opened the bullet case I could see a little
piece of paper, I decided to be careful and took the piece of
paper out of the case when I was at home. I was very surprised
when I found two pieces of paper which both had the name of
Frank Longiotti written on them as well as his number, blood
group
and religion. A little piece of history of the 508th saw
daylight again after almost 70 years! I immediately began to
search the internet and found out that he was a member of 508th
and shortly after that I found his picture on your website. I also found out that Frank Longiotti died in 2009, so
unfortunately I can't contact him anymore. I tried to find
e-mail addresses of his next of kin, but didn't succeed. I hope
you will be able to help me with that.
I enclosed some pictures of this remarkable find.
With kind regards,
Patrick Peek
Zandvoort, Holland
Jumpmaster Notes: We put Mr. Peek
in touch with the funeral home that handled Frank's burial.
They have forwarded his message to Frank's son and hopefully
they will soon make contact.
Also Mr. Peek stated in a second note that he
had found the cartridge casing on the edge of the forest north
of Groesbeek, overlooking the fields that were used as Drop Zone
T. He noted that "Frank Longiotti was a machine gunner and
that he earned the Purple Heart after he was shot in the chest
while he was clearing the drop zone".
We know that Frank was wounded on 18 September
1944 and evacuated to a field hospital. It was not
until 11 January 1945 that he was deemed fit to travel and sent
back to the U.S. for further treatment. He was discharged on 22
June 1945, nine months after being wounded. |
