A 102-year-old American World War II veteran died while traveling to Normandy, France, last week to attend a ceremony marking the 80th anniversary of D-Day, a veterans organization announced.
Navy veteran Robert “Al” Persichitti, of Rochester, New York, was aboard a ship heading to the coast of Normandy from Germany on Friday when he experienced a medical emergency. He was airlifted to a hospital in Germany and died shortly after, the organization Honor Flight Heroes said in a statement.
“A great, humble man who served his country bravely without hesitation,” the organization said of Persichitti, who was involved in the Allied operation in Japan and witnessed the raising of the American flag over Iwo Jima.
A day before leaving for Europe, Persichitti spoke with Rochester station WROC and expressed excitement about his travels, which the World War II Museum in New Orleans reportedly sponsored.
“I got a hold of my friend that went to Iwo Jima with me, Al DeCarlo, and he says ‘Yes, we’re going,’” he excitedly recalled.
Persichitti said he was in his cardiologist’s office when he got the invite and his doctor also urged him to go.
DeCarlo, who is a history teacher and in 2019 traveled with Persichitti to the South Pacific, told station ABC affiliate WHAM that his friend was not alone when he died.
“The doctor was with him. He was not alone, he was at peace and he was comfortable,” DeCarlo said. “She put his favorite singer, Frank Sinatra, on her phone and he peacefully left us.”
In a 2022 sit-down interview, Persichitti recalled enlisting after the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor and then sailing to the Pacific, where he joined the 1945 Battle of Iwo Jima in Japan.
“You could hardly see it, from the smoke that was happening on that island, and you’d think nothing would survive,” he said in his recorded interview with WWII historian Rishi Sharma. “I said to myself, you guys are going in. I don’t know how many are coming back.”
It was while standing on the deck of his command ship, the USS Eldorado, that he said he witnessed the American flag being raised over Mt. Suribachi in a moment that was captured in one of the most famous photographs of the Second World War.
“Joe was aboard our ship. He was the one who brought that flag from aboard our ship,” he said of Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal, who snapped the iconic image.
Persichitti was named an honoree of New York State Senate’s Veterans Hall of Fame in 2020 for his life’s work. After serving as a radioman in the Navy, he worked as a carpentry teacher and later gave talks with local students about his life experiences and role in WWII, leading to his friendship with DeCarlo, according to the New York Senate’s website.
He published his autobiography, “Bob’s Book: Building an American Life,” in 2015.