A great Birthday!
We are gathered here together…to celebrate the birthday of Dominic Bersani.
Who is Mr. Bersani when he’s at home? Mr. Bersani is an interesting fella, a recent high school graduate who celebrated his birthday November 20th.
Bersani, from East Greenbush, New York, was given an honorary diploma from Columbia High School and military medals during an event held by the Rev. Francis A. Kelley Military Honor Society and the Lois Wilson Memorial Breakfast Club at the Melvin Roads American Legion Post.
Might also mention that Mr. Bersani is a former Seabee – from WWII. This is his 99th birthday.
Bersani received his diploma from the Operation Recognition Program, a project that helps veterans who never completed their high school education due to joining the service finally receive their long-overdue diplomas. He is now a proud graduate of Columbia High’s Class of 2025. He joined fellow veteran Abram Seeberger, 88, of Schodack, New York, who also received an honorary diploma earlier in the year.
Mr. Bersani wasn’t fond of academics, and dropped out of school after eighth grade. He found employment gluing on shoe soles at a shoe factory. Then came the war.
Japanese forces were winning battles in the Pacific and getting dangerously close to U.S. soil. After Japan captured Attu and Kiska in the Aleutian Islands in late spring 1943, both the U.S. and Canada sent troops to drive out the Rising Sun.
Part of the Seabees, Bersani was sent to Adak Island to construct a staging area complete with air bases, forts, and deep-water ports to assist in defense strategies to thwart Japanese forces from the string of islands off the southern coast of Alaska. Powered by 35,000 U.S. and Canadian troops, the allied forces drove out about 9,000 Japanese soldiers.
The only WWII battles fought on U.S. soil, I believe.
The Seabees, Naval Construction Battalions, were vital during the Second World War, constructing military infrastructure and lending a hand in combat missions throughout both the Pacific and European theaters. The Seabees’ motto is “Can Do!” and members certainly lived up to it during the war.
After the war, Bersani served in the Aleutians until he received an honorable discharge in 1946. He came home to Maine and his job in the shoe factory.
Bersani reenlisted in the Navy in 1949 and was promoted to ship serviceman third class. He was stationed in Florida where he worked on fixing and shipping landing crafts off to the Navy during the Korean War.
With Cold War tensions on the rise, Bersani was deployed to missions in Cuba and the Caribbean in 1954 before receiving another honorable discharge.
Obviously our kind of glutton for punishment!
Following his military career, Bersani became a bridge builder, working for Cinbro Construction in Maine. He later retired and relocated to East Greenbush. Seven decades removed from the service, Bersani is still active in local veterans groups.
It may be an overworked cliche, but it seems appropriate to say he is 99 years young.
Happy Birthday from all of us at TAH!
“Can do!” — Seems more like the motto for all who served at that time.
Happy Birthday, sir!!
Congrats on your diploma and Happy Birthday Seabee.
All honor and respect, sir.
Finally, you can get into college.
Happy birthday, sir. And congrats!
Attu and Kiska were the Aleutian islands occupied by the Japanese. My father-in-law was an Imperial Japanese Army artillery officer on Attu, then on Kiska; he was one of the evacuated.
He was from Hokkaido, so spent a lot of his time in the cold regions. Did Manchuria at one point, then at Shumshu, right at the southern tip of Karafuto/Kamchaka/Sakhalin.
He survived two troop carrier sinkings and lived to be 93.
A former Cowboy shooting buddy (now retired) was a SeaBee vet. Amazing stories. Also a collector of odd Brit vehicles.
I surmised you were a fellow SASS shooter. Did you ever attend the National Shoot in Norco, CA?