OBIT: Lt. Thomas E. VITALE, 1949, native of Somerset County, PA

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Meyersdale Library.
Transcribed and proofread by:  Richard Boyer.

Copyright 2006.  All rights reserved.
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LT. THOMAS E. VITALE

  Requiem high mass for Lt. Thomas E. Vitale will be held Wednesday morning at 
nine o'clock in SS. Philip and James Catholic Church.  His body returned from 
overseas, will arrive at the Price Funeral Home on Monday, where friends will be 
received after three o'clock Monday afternoon and Tuesday.
  Lt. Vitale was born in Meyersdale, November 7, 1921, the son of Angelo and 
Marie Natalina (Pannozzo) Vitale, and was 22 years of age at his death.
  A P-38 pilot serving in the 15th Air Force, Lt. Vitale was killed in action 
June 16, 1944, while returning from a mission over Vienna, Austria.  He was 
awarded the air medal for outstanding performance.
  He was graduated from Meyersdale High School in 1939 and was employed by the 
Celanese Corp. in Cumberland, before enlisting in the Air Corps in April, 1942.
  Surviving besides his parents are four brothers, Robert of Philadelphia, James 
of Pnoebus, Va., William in the Air Force at Washington, D.C., and Richard, at 
home; and four sisters, Mrs. Kenneth Statler of Salisbury, Mrs. Raymond Nesly of 
Baltimore, Mrs. Clarence Sechler of Rockwood, and Mary, at home.
  Father Bechtold will conduct the requiem high mass.  Interment will be made in 
the Catholic Cemetery.  The Charles E. Kelly Post 112, American Legion, and John 
C. Tressler Post, Veterans of Foreign Wars, will be in charge of the military 
service.

Meyersdale Republican, January 20, 1949