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LAINVIEW
ISLAND TREES PLAINEDGE SEAFORD
VOL. 14 NO. 51 For The Week of June 5-11,1980 20 cants par copy
J Remember D-Day
By Buddy Mazzara
Our code name was Omaha
Easy Red. It was D-Day the 6th of
June in Normandy
It started early, about 2:30
A.M. Our breakfast for some was
the last meal; for the survivors,
nothing to eat for quite a while.
We were lowered away in
LCVP's (Landing Craft-Vehicles
& Personnel). This was to be the
largest amphibious operation in
military, history and a unique
type of operation. We were for­med
into a new type of combat
team for this invasion. Organized
into 30 man units, carrying
bangalore torpedoes (large pipes
filled with explosives) to blow up
barbed wire on the beach; pole
charges (40 lbs., of dynamite) to
blow the doors off enemy
pillboxes, and flame throwers to
"button up" the pillboxes.
Everyone was overloaded with
equipment.
As we headed to the beaches,
the LCVP's would go down into a
trough, in the English Channel,
and we couldn't see land until we
came up on the crest of a wave.
Most of us got seasick and couldn't
care whether we made it to the
beach.
The Germans mined the shores
and as the landing craft came in
to discharge the troops the craft
would explode and debris and
men would be scattered over the
water.
Seeing this some of the pilots of
the craft discharged the men out
further. Many soldiers couldn't
swim with the heavy equipment.
They drowned!
My craft dropped us off about
»4 mile from shore. I was
carrying an 82 lb. flame thrower
strapped to my back. When I saw
little Pete Capuzzi going down
without thinking I desperately
pulled him to shore.
As the ramps went down on the
LCVP's the men started to come
out. The Germans opened up with
artillery and machine guns.
Many never made it to shore.
I remember so vividly the acrid
odor of gunpowder. It was like a
thousand Fourth of Julys
wrapped up into one. I still see
the bodies of young dedicated
men floating on the water, and
later, piled up on the beach.
I remember gathering the
remnants of the troops together
on the beach, and reorganizing
for an assault.
Freddie Erben ( now of Lin-denhurst),
Sgt. Al Nendza (now
of Syosset), and I went forward to
try to neutralize the first enemy
pillbox. We captured the first
enemy soldiers on the beach.
I remember how God watched
over me as I ran up the cliff,
found a "secure" place, then ran
back down and got Capt. Victor
Briggs, who organized the troops
for an attack. I ran back up that
cliff through a German
minefield. Others stepped on the
mines and were killed or injured.
We had advanced so far in our
sector, that we were surrounded
on three sides by Germans.
Behind us, the English Channel.
The further forward we went, the
more tenuous our position.
Freddie Erben went over a
hedgerow into a open field and
was hit by shrapnel. A loud shout,
"Help," and then silence.
Freddie was and is, my friend.
You don't leave friends stranded.
By God's grace, I was able to get
him back. He was unconscious. I
had to drag him and another
soldier back, a few inches at a
time. Freddie went back to a
hospital in England. What was
amazing to me, was that anyone
survived that day on Omaha
Easy Red.
That night, after 11:00, we
decided to "dig in" and get some
sleep. The Germans usually
attacked just before dawn.
All of a sudden, there was a
A DAY IN THE LIFE: Oyster Bay Town Councilman Gregory W. Carman [second from right]
shares a lighter moment with students Helen Rousakis of Bethpage H.S. [second from left] and
Elizabeth of Farmingdale H.S. during Career and Youth in Law Day observances at Town Hall. The
annual event gives students an opportunity to shadow a Town official and get a first hand look at
government in action. Town Councilman Salvatore R. Mosca [left] was among this year's enthusi­astic
participants.
noise that sounded like a German
tank column behind us. We sent
out a patrol, and they discovered
U.S. Army Engineers building a
landing strip with a bulldozer.
It was a long day, and there
would be many more. For me, 63
before I was lucky enough to get
shot and get back to England.
Though my wound was serious, I
still considered myself lucky.
Eventually, I was to get back
into combat, but there was to be
no other day like D-Day.
Soon, the film "The Big Red
One," will be released. This is the
story of the First Infantry
Division in World War II; writ­ten,
produced, and directed by
sam Fuller, renowned Hollywood
producer, and a member of our
16th Regimental Combat Team.
No one film- no one article- will
ever be able to adequately ex­plain
or portray D-Day. There
were thousands of heroes that
day. I consider it a great
privilege to have been able to
serve my country in its greatest
battle. I pray that God will bless
America again with the type of
determination, dedication,
courage and leadership we had
on that day.
Only this time, that our efforts
will be toward production, and
not destruction.
Lilco Introduces Thermovision
Buddy Mazzara, 36 years after D-Day
stands beside memorobilia
in his agency's window.
Starting this week, an orange
and white van will be rolling
along the highways and back
roads of Long Island, with what
looks like a television camera
poking out of the roof. The van
contains special "Thermovision"
equipment that will be used by
LILCo during the next 15 weeks to
find potential trouble spots on the
utility's power lines.
The Thermovision van features
an infra-red scanning device that
is used to detect "hot spots" -
evidence of overheating - on
electrical equipment.
Overheating of clamps, switches
and other overhead lines equip­ment
is an early sign of trouble.
The Thermovision method
detects these potential faults long
before there is any visual
evidence.
The infra-red scanner pro­trudes
through a hatch in the
van's roof and surveys the
overhead lines as the truck rolls
from pole to pole. Any
overheating shows up as bright
spot on the unit's monitor, a
cathode ray tube that looks like
an ordinary television screen.
Photos of the potential trouble
spots are taken and sent to LILCo
repair crews, who then move in to
fix the potential fault before it
can cause outage.".
When Thermovision was used
last year, about 300 "hot spots"
were located. LILCO estimates
that fixing these potential pro­blem
spots, prevented about
100,000 customer outages.
First used in the mid 1960's,
LILCO now uses the device an­nually
to survey electric lines.
The utility uses Thermovision
during the summer season when
electrical facilities are running
at, or near, capacity. At these
times, higher amounts of heat are
generated, and deficiencies are
more noticeable to teh scanning
device.
Thermovision is one of several
preventive maintenance methods
used by LILCO to cut down on
service interruptions. Others in­clude
tree-trimming and the in­stallation
of special, plastic
coated "tree wire" in various
heavily treed areas to protect
against outages from falling
trees and limbs.