Frank Maresca was born in September 1925 in Jersey City. He served in Company F, 289th Infantry Regiment, 75th Infantry Division and held the rank of sergeant. Maresca served from January 1944 until April 1946 and received the Good Conduct Medal, Purple Heart Medal, Bronze Star Medal, European Theater Ribbon with three battle stars, Combat Infantryman Badge and the Army of Occupation Ribbon. Maresca was wounded and, after being released from the hospital, was assigned to the 926th Engineer Aviation Regiment [Annotator's Note: Maresca most likely means the 826th Engineer Aviation Battalion]. Maresca spent two weeks in combat with the engineer aviation battalion. He was an MP [Annotator's Note: military police] at the time. Maresca and the engineers pushed into Nuremburg. In addition to his other medals, Maresca received the Presidential Unit Citation, Meritorious Unit Citation and French Legion of Honor. Maresca grew up in a small family with only his parents and one other sibling, a sister. Maresca's father worked as a meter mechanic for Esso Standard Oil of New Jersey in Bayonne, New Jersey. It was a tedious job and a dangerous one. During the depression things were difficult. His father's hours and pay were both reduced which strained their family's finances. Maresca dropped out of high school during his junior year to go into the service. When he got back from overseas after the war he was faced with having to finish high school before he could begin college.

Frank Maresca had just finished eating Sunday dinner and had turned on the radio to listen to a ball game. During the game, an announcement broke in stating that Pearl Harbor had been attacked. The following day, Maresca heard President Roosevelt [Annotator's Note: President Franklin Delano Roosevelt] make his famous speech. It became clear that the United States would be fighting a war on two fronts against two determined enemies. As the years passed, Maresca realized that he would have to get involved. He asked his parents if he could leave high school to go into the military. After passing his physical, Maresca was offered his choice of service branch. He requested the Navy but was told that the quota had been met. He then got his choice between tanks, infantry and engineers but before he could decide, he was told that the engineer option was closed. The decision was then made for him that he would go into the infantry. Maresca signed the documents then returned home and told his parents that he was now a member of the Army infantry.

Frank Maresca started his basic training in January [Annotator's Note: January 1944]. He was first sent to Fort Dix for four or five days. Many of the soldiers Maresca reported in with were much bigger and much older than he was. He felt like a little kid standing next to them. Maresca realized that he needed to change, which he did during basic training. There is really no way to prepare for service. Everything was new to Maresca. After completing basic training he went home to visit his family. Prior to that, during the eighteenth or nineteenth week, he was sent to the woods to skin trees. While working, he stripped down to his skivvies and ended up with a good tan. While he was getting dressed and preparing to go on furlough he looked in the mirror and thought he looked colored. When he got home, his father recognized him right away. His father told his mother that he was no longer a boy. During basic training, the instructors told them that they should take their training seriously. They were training to become infantrymen and killers. Both of the enemies that America faced were determined and skilled. After basic training, Maresca went home on furlough. After his furlough was up he was sent to Camp Meade, Maryland for about two weeks before being sent to Camp Howze, Texas for tank and infantry training. He was there all through June, July and into August before leaving to join his new unit, the 75th Infantry Division. Maresca deployed overseas with the 75th Infantry Division in October 1944.

Frank Maresca shipped out from the 54th Street Pier in Brooklyn aboard His Majesty's Ship Franconia, a converted luxury liner. The convoy his ship was part of had more than 100 ships in it, including baby flat tops [Annotator's Note: escort carriers, or CVEs] that were manned by British crews. Maresca was seasick for the nine day trip overseas. The men going overseas had hammocks to sleep in but Maresca and several others fell out of theirs so he just slept on the floor. When they were fed, the bread was good but the soup was not. That was what started the seasickness for many of the men. There were also Army WACs [Annotator's Note: members of the Women’s Army Corps] and Navy WAVES [Annotator's Note: Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service] aboard ship but the soldiers below decks were not able to get to the upper decks to visit with them. Maresca's berthing area was so far below deck that the entire area reeked of diesel fumes and when the anchor chain was let out or pulled in the whole area rattled. When Maresca got sick he went topside but he had to find a place to hide because the weather was getting bad. He found a place to sit down and quickly passed out. When he woke up, the ship was rocking around in a bad storm. Maresca was so sick during the trip that he was only able to eat a little bit. Maresca believes that the officers did not care about what the men were going through.

Frank Maresca went ashore on the Albert Dock in Liverpool. When they offloaded from the ship there was no one around. They walked to the train station and there Maresca had his first interaction with the English people. They did a lot of marching during their time in England. The long marches were meant to build up the men's strength before they were sent into combat. At this time, the British had convinced Eisenhower [Annotator's Note: US Army General Dwight David Eisenhower] to provide them with surplus supplies of fuel, food, ammunition and manpower to support their end run around the Rhine River and the Siegfried Line. Maresca got his orders to ship out right after the British defeat at Arnhem. They were already aboard the Leopoldville. The Leopoldville was sunk on the next trip with a large loss of life. They crossed the Channel and offloaded in Le Havre. They went over the side of the ship into landing craft that brought them ashore.

Frank Maresca saw his first combat at Bristol. Shortly after they were issued their ammunition and k rations they were lined up and swept the nearby woods for Germans. They patrolled all the way to the town of Sadzot then turned around and headed back. It was dark by that time so they stopped for the night and occupied a row of houses. During the night, someone started yelling that tanks were approaching. Maresca jumped out of the window and rallied with the rest of the troops. It was thought that as many as 12 German tanks had broken through the lines. The soldiers tried to dig in but it was December [Annotator's Note: December 1944] and the ground was frozen. Maresca was only able to dig down a few inches. He set up his position and laid out ammunition and grenades. Luckily, the tanks never got to them. They ran into positions ahead of where Maresca's outfit [Annotator's Note: Company F, 2nd Battalion, 289th Infantry Regiment, 75th Infantry Division] was dug in and turned around and headed back to their own lines. The next day, Maresca's unit was marching up a hill when they were strafed by friendly P-38 [Annotator's Note: Lockheed P-38 Lightening] fighter aircraft. The planes continued to attack until red recognition panels were put out. That night, Maresca's group continued to move up. At the front of the column was a gung ho colonel, Lieutenant Colonel Clough. Maresca believes that Clough wanted to be another Patton [Annotator's Note: US Army General George S. Patton]. Clough brought the troops out into the open under a full moon that lit them up like it was daytime. The next thing they knew they heard tanks approaching and found themselves under fire by German machine guns. No one was hurt but the company was split up. By the time they regrouped, the men were all hungry. They had missed several meals. All they had were k rations. The rations were totally inadequate. One day, Maresca lied about how many k rations he had on him and was given six more. He then sat down and ate three of them. Maresca's unit was on its way to rescue Companies K and L. When the Germans smashed into the lines they turned right at Elsenborn Ridge but were stopped there by the 99th Infantry Division. There were three prongs in the German attack. One prong hit the 99th Division near Elsenborn Ridge. The second hit Grandmenil near Maresca's unit. The third went through the southern area of the bulge at Bastone. The Americans succeeded in stopping the Germans at Grandmenil.

On 26 December [Annotator's Note: 26 December 1944], Frank Maresca and his unit [Annotator's Note: Company F, 2nd Battalion, 289th Infantry Regiment, 75th Infantry Division] were moving back down the hill on which they had previously been hit by friendly aircraft. As they moved out, they were hit by friendly artillery fire. Maresca's platoon was nearly wiped out. One shell lifted Maresca up then slammed him onto the ground. He got up and ran. When the shelling stopped, he went back to where he had been and encountered his friend Ben Tierney [Annotator's Note: unsure of spelling]. [Annotator's Note: there is a short pause while the interviewer reads something Maresca hands him.] Maresca was able to move about through the groups of wounded to see what was going on. He ran into a guy from his squad whose stomach was split open. He then saw another guy whose legs had been blown off. Maresca saw three guys carrying his friend Calvin Cummings from Missouri and ran over to help carry him. Cummings died in Maresca's arms. Maresca started to cry but someone grabbed him and reminded him that they had other things to do. When Maresca walked away from Tom Darlington [Annotator's Note: unsure of spelling] he noticed a black canvas body bag on the ground next to him. Maresca raised the canvas and saw a body under it that was missing the head. A moment later a man approached with a damaged helmet with a head still in it and placed it on the ground by the body where the head should be. Maresca recognized the corpse. It was a friend of his. No training at all could have prepared them for that. They trained with bayonets, rifle butts, Bangalore torpedoes and other explosives but there was no training for dealing with the loss of their friends.

When Frank Maresca's unit [Annotator's Note: Company F, 2nd Battalion, 289th Infantry Regiment, 75th Infantry Division] was marching to the front, all they could hear was the crunching of the snow beneath their feet. As they moved, the captain walked up to each man to check on them. On Christmas Day [Annotator's Note: Christmas Day 1944], Maresca had a k ration for dinner. To lighten his load, he had thrown away the knife and fork that came with his mess kit. He only kept his spoon and a can opener. While Maresca was overseas his mother sent him a box of fuel tablets for heating water. They were issued a squad heater but it required gasoline and they did not have any. Once the gas ran out someone still had to carry the heater. The only way they could get gas was from the tank crews. Maresca made a mistake when it came to the cold because of Clough [Annotator's Note: Lieutenant Colonel Clough was a senior officer in Maresca's 289th Infantry Regiment, 75th Infantry Division]. Clough did not realize that men weighed down with equipment could not move around as easily as he could when he was carrying only a musette bag. Somewhere, about ten or 12 miles outside of Bristol, their truck column came to a stop. They unloaded from the vehicles with all of their gear. Clough ordered the men to start moving immediately. The column started moving but was very disorganized. As a result of this, Maresca decided that if he travelled light, he could handle anything. He dropped his overcoat and boots and put on an extra layer of clothes. That was how Maresca met the cold during the bulge. The weather was brutal. There was wind, snow and sleet. They tried to light a fire in a building one time but the smoke was so bad that Maresca went back outside. Maresca also had little opportunity to keep his feet dry. They were always on the move so he rarely had a chance to change his socks. As a result he got frostbite on his feet and hands. The higher-ups had not prepared for the terrible cold. Even if the Germans had not smashed into the American lines, they still would have had casualties because they were not prepared for the weather. Maresca and his fellow soldiers did what they were told. They were always looking for food and shelter. There was a little bit of bitterness among the soldiers toward the officers who were better dressed and prepared for the bitter cold. Maresca's company went into combat with 165 men. By the time he got hit there were only 101. By the time the war ended there were only 35 or 37 original members of the company still in it. The rest were all replacements.

Two days before Frank Maresca's last day in combat, he and his unit [Annotator's Note: Company F, 2nd Battalion, 289th Infantry Regiment, 75th Infantry Division] were pulled off of the line and sent to occupy another area. The area they were sent to already had trenches dug which they jumped into. In other positions just across from Maresca's, they could see members of the US Army's 35th Infantry Division who were also there guarding against an expected attack. Every so often Maresca heard a shot ring out. It was not until later that he learned that it was men shooting themselves in the foot because they had had enough of combat. Maresca never got to that point. He always had his father's advice in his head telling him to do his duty and to not let his friends down. On 4 January [Annotator's Note: 4 January 1945] Maresca was wounded by shrapnel from a German rocket. By that time his unit still had not received any air support. They were being hit by a lot of 88mm artillery rounds and rockets that were all set to detonate in the tree tops. Maresca was on his way to a rear area with seven other guys from his unit to collect ammunition, water and food when they came under enemy rocket fire and he got hit. One of the guys on the detail, a guy named Roberts, slipped and fell and severely injured his back on a log. When he started yelling and screaming the other men went to his aid. That was when the enemy rockets started slamming into the area. The men scattered and left Roberts in the open by himself. The German rockets made a screaming noise when they were fired which is why the soldiers called them Screaming Mimis. Maresca was hit in the back, shoulders, ass [Annotator's Note: Maresca's word], calves and thighs. After he was hit, Maresca got up and started walking toward the others he had been with. As he got close to them he fell down. The guys grabbed him and took off. Maresca did not realize that he had been hit until he saw the blood. He spent about four and a half months in hospitals recovering.

After being released from the hospital, Frank Maresca was sent to Southampton. He was given a physical exam after which the doctor told him that he was not going back to the infantry. Maresca was sent to Paris where he met up with his new unit. They were good soldiers. That is where he was promoted to sergeant. He was placed in charge of supply. He was in charge of feeding an entire battalion plus some German prisoners. When Maresca left home to go into the service he left home thinking like a boy. When he returned after the war, he came back thinking like a man. The things he thought were important before he left did not mean the same thing when he got home. He realized that the most important thing he had to do was get an education. He knew that an education would open doors for him. He needed the education to get a good job and he needed both of them to raise a family. Even though Maresca suffered tragedies, they did not warp his mind. He never became someone who was hard to handle or judgmental. He was able to maintain his sense of humor and was more tolerant. When he returned home he no longer held prejudices against Jews, Blacks or Protestants. He does still have an attitude against the wealthy. Maresca did not have children but he feels that parents are responsible for their children.