Missing PaPa
Francesco “Frank” Calvelli was born in Glasgow, NY on June 14, 1914. Actually, he was born on the 17 th , according to his birth certificate and Social Security records, but he told everybody he was born on Flag Day, and out of respect and love we all just accepted it. Of course, it didn’t matter that Flag Day wasn’t even proclaimed by Woodrow Wilson until 1916, Frank was so patriotic it just made sense to everybody who knew him. One day, during a conversation with him, he told me that although he was extremely proud of his Italian heritage (both of his parents were from Italy), he was prouder to be American. He went on to say that he had seen a lot of other countries in the world and that America was the best, “hands down”. When he was two years old, his family moved to Stockton California, where he grew up, went to school and helped on the family ranch. At 27, he joined the US Army and served in the Tank and Artillery Corps under General Patton, se...