FORT BENNING, Ga., (Jan. 6 2016) -- Retired Master Sgt. Vincent Melillo, a member of the Ranger Hall of Fame and one of the last original members of Merrill's Marauders, died of a heart attack on Christmas Eve at Midtown Medical Center in Columbus at the age of 97.
"The Fort Benning and Ranger community has lost one of its heroes," said Maj. Gen. Scott Miller, commanding general of the Maneuver Center of Excellence. "Our thoughts are with his Family on this solemn day. Vince and the rest of our WWII veterans paved the way for us that wear the uniform today. We are forever grateful for his service to our community and our great nation."
As a member of Merrill's Marauders, Melillo served with the first American troops to fight the Japanese on land in Asia during World War II. Traveling almost 1,000 miles, the Soldiers marched farther on foot than any other fighting unit. One of the main missions of the volunteer unit was capturing the airstrip at Myitkyina, Burma, and opening up an allied supply line into Asia.
During a memorial service that took place Jan. 2 at Fort Benning's Infantry Center Chapel, Melillo's daughter, Jonnie Melillo Clasen, told attendees that Melillo was "a fighter until the very end."
"On Dec. 2 Dad had a mild heart attack. When he was in the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit, a group of folks ... coached Dadthrough a series of heart seizures," she said. "At one point, Dad grabbed Bill Block's hand and said, "Bill, I don't remember volunteering for this mission."
Born in 1918 in Boonton, N.J., Melillo was the fifth child of Italian immigrants. He was orphaned at 3 months old when a flu epidemic killed his mother, 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 Dec. 7, 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 Jan. 1, 1944. Soldiers in the unit were dubbed by the press as 'Merrill's Marauders.'
Serving as a scout with the Blue Combat Team in Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 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.
After the Burma campaign, he was assigned to Camp Wheeler, near Macon, Georgia, where he met his late wife, Frankie Thompson Melillo of Milan, Georgia, who managed the canteen there.
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.
"My son and I will miss him every day for the rest of our lives," Clasen said. "But the outpouring of love for Dad - peoples' responses - has left me completely in awe. Daddy was a people's man, and you can see that in the way so many who knew him are reacting."
She told the story of Sangam Adhikari, a student from Nepal who Melillo met while Adhikari was going through the Infantry Basic Officer Leader course. They met during Adhikari's first 24 hours in the United States, and Melillo became a sort of father figure to him. Melillo spent time with Adhikari on a regular basis, attended his IBOLC graduation, helped drop him off at the airport and kept in touch with him.
"Sangam would call frequently to check on us - and he would always ask, "How is Daddy?" because that's what he called my Dad. They were extremely close."
Clasen also shared words that Gen. Sam Wilson, a Merrill's Marauder from Virginia, asked her to say to her father while he was still in the hospital.
"First, I'd like to paint a picture of what life was like for Merrill's Marauders in 1944. 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.
"With that image in your minds, this is what (Wilson) said to me - and I quote - "When you get back to the hospital, I want you to put your hand on your Dad's shoulder and tell him that I said: "The column is resting now ... and we will regroup later on the other side for future endeavors."
Mellilo is survived by his daughter, Jonnie Melillo Clasen; a sister, Theresa D'Aconti of Middlesex, New Jersey; grandson, D. Michael Clasen of Reno, Nevada; and a host of nephews and nieces.
Melillo was buried during a military ceremony Jan. 2 at Midway United Methodist Church in Milan,142 miles southeast of Columbus, where his late wife is buried.
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