What does a pebble from Burma in 1944 have to do with discovering another WWII Melillo vet on 1 July 2024?
Upon returning from Luxembourg after recording Chapter 89, I didn't unpack. Instead, I composed "In You I Live Again," which premiered on Memorial Day at the American Military Cemetery in Luxembourg. If you’re unfamiliar with the Dominick Melillo Story, reading about him in the Chapter 89 Libretto will truly bring this wider story to life.
Here’s the link: Chapter 89 Libretto.https://stormworld.com/digital-libretti
On 1 July 2024, I stumbled upon a Tim Gray documentary about Merrill’s Marauders. Knowing one of the last surviving members, Lloyd “Dynamite” Hackenberg, I decided to watch.
After recently discovering Dominick, I was not prepared for what I saw next.
I paused the documentary and grabbed my phone. Another WWII Melillo vet? A Melillo who fought with Merrill’s Marauders? Could “Hack” have known him?
Merrill’s Marauders & Vincent Melillo
With only what they could carry on their backs or pack on mules, the Marauders fought not only the Japanese, but malaria, dysentery, typhus, and malnutrition as they trudged almost 1,000 miles on foot through jungles and the foothills of the Himalayas to capture Burma's only all-weather airstrip at Myitkyina. No mechanized vehicles were part of the long columns of men and mules supplied by C-47 airplane drops. Only about 200 skeletal-looking Marauders reached the airstrip. The operation took a staggering 95% loss of the all-volunteer group!
Born in 1918 in Boonton, N.J., Master Sgt. Vincent Melillo was the fifth child of Italian immigrants. He was orphaned at 3 months old when a flu epidemic killed his mom and was raised at the Villa O'Connor Orphanage until he was reclaimed around age 11 by a Family he didn't know existed. "Being raised in an orphanage made the Army seem like home to me," Melillo said during a 2013 interview.
Melillo quit school after the seventh grade to help his father as a mason's helper before joining the Army in 1940. He was first assigned to the 33rd Infantry Regiment at Fort Clayton, Panama. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, he was on a ship headed to Trinidad, where he served for two years.
At the end of his enlistment, he was on a ship returning to the United States when the boat stopped in Puerto Rico. That's when he and roughly 3,000 men volunteered for a dangerous mission when asked by President Frankin D. Roosevelt.
Melillo was assigned to the 5307th Composite Unit Provisional, a group led by Gen. Frank D. Merrill on 1 JAN 1944. The press dubbed the soldiers as 'Merrill's Marauders.'
Serving as a scout with the Blue Combat Team, he traveled almost 1,000 miles during the unit's eight months of existence. They hiked through Ledo Road, the Himalayan mountains and jungles of Burma. Melillo was part of the five-man patrol when the first Marauder was killed from a machine gun blast.
During his 21 years of service, Melillo's awards included the Bronze Star, Purple Heart, World War II Victory Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Korean Defense Service Medal, the Presidential Unit Citation and the Ranger Tab. In 2013, he was inducted into the U.S. Army Ranger Hall of Fame and the Georgia Military Veterans Hall of Fame. The 75th Ranger Regiment honors their legacy with the Marauders patch as their crest.
The Pebble Connection
In 2007, while at the Bataan Death March memorial walk at White Sands in New Mexico, I met Lloyd “Dynamite” Hackenberg. Mike Lee and I went to his home in Las Cruces. There we were entreated to a history-laden, private museum, a room that Hack had carefully manicured to keep the story of Merrill’s Marauders alive.
Over seven years, we exchanged handwritten letters until his passing in 2014.
Sometimes I called him “Dynamite,” the name of his mule, which played a crucial role in the Merrill’s Marauders operations. If you watch the Merrill’s Marauders Documentary, (please do!) the mules and their important role in the operation are well recorded. I kept looking for Hack!
At one point Hack wanted me to take the entire contents of his room back to Virginia with me. (A few of the guys offered their worlds to me as well. My STORMLab is already a well-packed museum!) Instead, I urged Hack and his wife to dedicate everything to a real museum.
When he knew I wouldn’t take the entire contents of his room, he said, “I want to give you something. Please just take anything you want.”
I chose this pebble.
As with the Death March Survivors, Hack had used that pebble to generate saliva while in the malaria-infested jungles of Burma. To me, it was a priceless Treasure! Whenever I hold it, I feel connected to him, the guys, and NOW, to Vincent Melillo! Chills.
I had no idea
I had no idea that Lloyd Hackenberg might have known Vincent Melillo. It took a 2022 documentary, a 1 July 2024 discovery, and a chilling coincidence to uncover Vincent Melillo's story. I plan to reach out to his family. I can’t count how many times massive, apparently disconnected lines, waving through Time and Space, came together to make a perfect circle. God in all things.
This excerpt from another related documentary sums it best.
Godspeed!
Stephen Melillo
Composer
