Bentley Kassal, WWII vet turns 100 on the job

Mikhail emailed us to let us know about his workmate, Bentley Kassal, whose 100th birthday is Tuesday. According to Wiki, he is still working as an attorney and litigation counsel, he was admitted to the NY Bar Association in 1940, then Pearl Harbor happened. From NYCourts.Gov;

In January 1942, he enlisted in the Army and soon graduated from Officer Candidates School and Air Combat Intelligence School. Serving as an air-combat intelligence officer in North Africa and the Mediterranean, he earned a Bronze Star and three Bronze Arrowheads for his intelligence planning and first-day landings during major invasions. He was discharged as Captain on December 31, 1945, and is presently a Major, U.S. Air Force Reserves (Retired).

From Harvard’s Law Bulletin;

Kassal enlisted as a private in the Army in 1942. He graduated 17th in a class of 2,500 from Army Air [Corps] Officer School, and in 1943, he arrived in North Africa and was assigned to air intelligence support for the invasion of Italy. Kassal landed on the beach near Gela, Sicily, and dug his first foxhole as the bombs started to fall. “It felt like living in your own grave,” he recalled.

Kassal planned bombing runs and advised American pilots on the vulnerabilities of the German Luftwaffe. He participated in two other landings during major invasions, in Salerno, Italy, and finally on Aug. 18, at St. Tropez, on the coast of Southern France—three days after the invasion of 250,000 Allied troops, which he had helped to plan. It was 70 days after the Allied forces stormed the Normandy beaches.

After the war, Kassal went on to serve in the New York Assembly and as a judge;

Kassal was later elected to the Civil Court in 1969. A major accomplishment of his while at the Civil Court was the establishment of Housing Court.

In 1975, Justice Kassal was elected to the Supreme Court Bench and in 1982 was appointed to the Appellate Division, First Department by Governor Carey. While on that bench, he was appointed by Chief Judge Wachtler of the Court of Appeals to serve on an interim basis at that Court for its April/May 1985 term. Justice Kassal reached the mandatory retirement age in 1993, at which time he retired from the Appellate Division bench. That’s not to say he went into retirement. He started a new career in 1998, becoming Counsel at the firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, where he remains. He also serves on several professional committees in New York, including, among others, the court system’s Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics and the Mayor’s Committee on City Marshals.

Category: Historical