Decoration Day

January 2024

This month, we asked our writers to reflect on 'Decoration Day' - which sadly - initially brought blanks stares ... but as you'll see, they made up for it.

Paul J. Mignini

Gracie Smith
MSMU Class of 2027

Who was Paul J. Mignini? This is an excellent question considering the United States Military Archives can’t even answer it. However, I will do my best.

Paul Mignini, born on January 25th, 1922, was an Italian-American with ambition like no other. He was the husband of Virginia Conklin and father to Paul Mignini, Jr., Carolyn Vinovich, Connie Iampieri, Edith Mignini, Victoria Unglesbee, and Mary Keeley. He was the grandfather to Jennifer and Julie Iampieri, Jamie Unglesbee, Jr., Paul J. Mignini, III, Rebecca and Matthew Smith, William and Katie Doyle, and Nick and Chris Vinovich. I, Gracie Smith, am writing to you as his great-granddaughter.

While I was just 10 months shy of meeting my great-grandfather, I hope to continue his legacy by informing you of his incredible experience during World War II. All I ever knew of my great-grandfather was that he had fought in the war, and earned a Purple Heart for his acts of bravery in saving another sailor. Nevertheless, this story never satisfied me. For years I have been curious about his time in the war and what exactly he did. I can now confidently and proudly say that I have uncovered it all.

According to the official draft papers I discovered in the depths of the internet, on June 29th, 1942, Yeoman Mignini registered to serve. He volunteered to go in place of his elder brother who was drafted so he could stay behind and provide an income for the rest of his family. It wasn’t until the fall of 1942 that his service initially began.

On October 24th, 1942, Yeoman Mignini was deployed to fight in Operation Torch: The Invasion of North Africa, led by none other than Dwight D. Eisenhower. Now, what was the plan for Operation Torch? Operation Torch began on November 8th, 1942, with the landing of 107,000 British and U.S. troops at Casablanca (Western Task Force), and the Algerian cities of Algiers and Oran (Eastern Task Force). The landings signaled the beginning of the end of Axis power in North Africa. On November 5th, Eisenhower established his command post at Gibraltar, Spain, undetected by the incoming German U-boats. The primary goal was to take over all the ports in North Africa and slowly reconquer lost territory. This campaign was so successful that Eisenhower and General George Patton would then invade Sicily and later Italy.

However, Yeoman Mignini never made it to Casablanca, not in the way they planned. He sailed across the Atlantic Ocean on the USS Tasker H. Bliss, a troop transport ship part of convoy UGF-1. Its route was to depart from Norfolk, Virginia, and arrive in Fedhala, Morocco on November 8th, 1942. The ship had 235 troops on board and weighed 12,568 tons. At around 18:30 hours on November 12th, five torpedoes were fired at the three ships in Yeoman Mignini’s convoy; the USS Edward Rutledge, the USS Hugh L. Scott, and the USS Tasker H. Bliss. The German submarine responsible for this was U-130, commanded by Ernst Kals. The first two ships went down almost immediately, but the USS Tasker H. Bliss remained burning in the water until around 02:30 hours the next day before it sank. At least 75 people would be killed in the attack from the three ships that went down. This would later be recognized as the Naval Battle of Casablanca.

From this attack, Yeoman Mignini had suffered oil burns in his eyes. This, however, didn’t stop him from swimming in the flaming bay with an injured soldier for eight miles to the Casablanca beach. The Baltimore Sun paper printed on December 6th, 1942 wrote about Yeoman Paul Mignini and interviewed him about his experience in the war. The paper says, "He became a soldier in a sailor’s uniform". From this, he went on to be awarded a Purple Heart Medal.

Once Yeoman Mignini had reached the African shore with the injured sailor, the army took him and began treatment for his oil-burned eyes. He lay that night in a Catholic church with other minorly wounded sailors. The next day, Yeoman Mignini traveled into the fallen city of Casablanca. He and other "ship-less" sailors were put aboard another transport ship heading back to the United States.

His mother, Cesira Mignini, was informed of the attack while Yeoman Mignini was en route home. It was a cold morning in early December when Yeoman Mignini returned to his home in Baltimore, Maryland. Mrs. Cesira Mignini asked no questions, her son was home for Christmas.

This brings me to the importance of Decoration Day, more commonly known as Memorial Day. War, combat, battle, shootings, bombings, sinkings, death; nobody knows how difficult it is to speak about something if they haven’t experienced it. As my great-grandfather asked when he returned home, "Do people really know there is a war going on? Do they really know other guys aren’t so lucky and are dying?"

I never met my great-grandfather. My family told me stories about him, but no one quite knew what he did in the war other than earn a Purple Heart. This prompt gave me the perfect excuse to dive into my family history and solve the cold case of my great-grandfather’s war service. After hours, days even, of research, fact-checking, and cross-referencing, I finally know what Yeoman Mignini accomplished during the war.

This Memorial Day, I urge you to learn about your family history. I urge you to call your relatives and ask them to share their stories. I ask you, how are we supposed to carry on their legacy if we do not know it? How are we supposed to appreciate everything our family members went through so that we could live the way we do today? Memorial Day is a day of remembrance and a day to honor our fallen soldiers. I ask you to learn about what we should be remembering.

As my great-grandfather said, "It isn’t for a Mignini to be afraid."

Read other articles by Gracie Smith

Decoration Day: honoring my grandfather

Devin Owen
MSMU Class of 2026

During the meeting to discuss our prompt for May, Mike asked us if we knew what Decoration Day was and what it was about. Everyone at our meeting sat there in silence and looked at Mike with blank stares, waiting for him to fill us in. What we know Decoration Day as is Memorial Day, and unfortunately, we associate the day of memorial with cookouts, drinking, beach days, and fun. In reality though, the day is about honoring those who have served and now have passed.

In honor of Decoration Day, I would like to tell you all about my grandfather, John Ribinsky, Sr., who served two tours in Vietnam as an Airborne Ranger and Sergeant. Grandpop spent quite a bit of time in Germany, but his time in the war isn’t something he wanted to talk about much—he did a lot of things he wasn’t proud of, and at a very young age too. When he did talk about his time at war, he said it was "kill or be killed," he didn’t have much of a choice in the decisions he made. Grandpop was drafted in 1965, when he was only 21 years old—he didn’t sign up for the war, but he was forced to go. Can you imagine? When my mom talks about her dad, she always says that he was a "badass of the time." He was exposed to some nasty things during this time of his life, and when he described it to my older sisters, he said that he was simply just trained to kill people and survive. In 1971, he was honorably discharged and was awarded two Bronze Star Medals, Air Medal, Vietnam Service Medal, Army Commendation Medal, Vietnam Campaign Medal with 60 Device, Combat Infantryman’s Badge, and Meritorious Unit Citation. From there he worked his way up to a tugboat captain, a very well-known one at that! I cannot imagine what six-years at war can do to a man. Sometimes people have to do things they never would’ve imagined themselves to do in order to survive, and all we can do is lend a shoulder for them to lean on when they need it.

Unfortunately, I never got the opportunity to spend much time with Grandpop. He moved out to California prior to me being born and only visited us once in my childhood years. The last time I saw him in person I was only three/four years old, so even from then I don’t remember much of his last trip out to Delaware. However, even through the distance of coast to coast, we managed to maintain a relationship throughout the years. Grandpop valued penmanship and art a great deal, so it never came as a surprise to me that he would write letters whenever he could. Looking back, I think my Grandpop was the only man I’ve met who could write in cursive handwriting—and my goodness was it beautiful. He used to send little gifts with his letters too: they were usually a bunch of pens that he would find around, and I still have most of them to this day. There was one letter that he sent with a heart-shaped necklace with a dove in the center of it, it was beautiful—it now hangs from the mirror of my car so that he can be with me wherever I go. He was also a big supporter of dreams, especially mine. I once told him on a phone call that it was my dream to go to Cornell University to study Veterinary Medicine and boy was he thrilled! From that point forward he made it his mission to find and send me anything he could on Cornell—he even managed to find a first edition magazine from/about the school and sent it my way with a heartfelt note about how happy he is to be able to share my dreams with me. Granted, I never ended up going to Cornell (I applied and was rejected), but I think he would still be just as excited for me being here at The Mount and pursuing my love for writing. Afterall, he is the one who created such a love through teaching me the importance of writing letters.

His death came as a shock to my whole family. We had just spoken with him a few days prior about the holidays and what he was up to. During these few days, my sister and her husband had actually talked to him about moving him out to Delaware to live with them in their new house so that he could be closer and get to meet his great-grandchildren. Grandpop passed away on Monday December 19th, 2022, after a really bad fall outside. His knees were always very weak, he said it was from all of the jumping he did as a paratrooper during the war. This man was one of the most stubborn people I had met, always wanting to show us that he could handle anything and do whatever he set his mind to—it makes sense why I am the way I am, its genetics. As painful as his death was for us, especially knowing that we weren’t there to do anything about it, there was a peace of mind in knowing that he passed while being truly himself—stubbornness and all. May he be resting in peace and knowing that he is so dearly missed here on Earth.

With Decoration Day approaching us very quickly, I want to reiterate the importance of celebrating those who served and have since passed on. My mother mentioned that the men coming back from war during this time weren’t always welcomed with open arms and bright smiles. Grandpop told us that many soldiers were viewed as the bad guys because of what they did while at war, or because they survived and some others didn’t—there was no life other than military when they got home and from there, they had to figure out what to do. On Decoration Day this year, let’s take a look at the lives we live and how lucky we are to be where we are, and then with that in mind, take a moment to remember those who died and those who fought to get us to this point. Thank you to those who have passed for your service; we will always remember and value you.

Read other articles by Devin Owen

Remembrance

Dolores Hans
MSMU class of 2025

In the stillness of the morning, the droplets coating the blades of grass cling to the hair on my ankles and create the dampness I hate to feel and the squeak of my sneakers I hate to hear. I wonder if a time will come when I can choose to go places, rather than be "voluntold" by my mother. If I was older, I wouldn’t have to accompany my grandma to a place that has very little meaning to me and feel guilty for not caring more than I do. I wish I did know, or feel, or whatever it is that causes someone to want to go visit a stranger’s grave. But the squeak of my sneakers, the carsick feeling I get after sitting in the backseat, the dampness of my socks, and my tired eyes prohibit me from surpassing the bare minimum of care. I’m here, I’m here for Grandma, and this means a lot to her. I keep repeating this to myself to get me through it. As I stroll past the curb and through the grass I pass stone after stone, engraved and decorated with flowers, some few, some bunches, some wilted and some stiff with purpose. I walk through the maze of stones, clutching my grandma's hand as she clutches the handkerchief she’s been using to dry the few tears that have dared glide somberly over her cheeks.

We stop at the grave of a stranger. Well, stranger to me. To my grandmother, was a beloved friend. I had heard a story or two before but I had no personal connection to the man. I close my eyes and try to picture him and my grandma and how she must be devastated without him, and how hard it must’ve been for him to fight for our country. Empathy and empathy alone makes a tear stream down my face. Am I doing it right? Is this remembrance? Is this how we honor them? I hope I’m doing enough.

When I first heard of "Decoration Day", I didn’t know what it was. When I discovered its meaning, all I could think of was how it felt to stroll past the graves of strangers, decorated with flowers, knickknacks, and photos.

My family is very patriotic. We have many family members who have served in the marines, national guard, and army. My Great Pop Pop was in the army. He never spoke about it to me before he died, probably because I was so young, but sometimes I think about if he watched the sunset when he was overseas, just as he always sat on the back porch and taught me how to love watching a sunset. He always told such elaborate stories about his life to me when I was a child, and to this day I don’t know what is true. I like to imagine him entertaining his squad with elaborate stories that are crazy, but just crazy enough to be true, or pretending to eat bee stingers, or finding a flower somewhere and telling them how he breaks the arms of people who touch his flowers. I remember when my Great Pop Pop died. At his funeral they draped a perfectly folded American Flag over his casket, and that flag was later folded into a perfect triangle and handed to one of my other family members. I wonder how many other thousands of funerals this was a part of, and how many other thousands of children witnessed their loved one’s casket draped with our flag.

My Uncle John is still alive, but I don’t see him anymore. He was in the marines. He also never told me stories, but I remember him coming to my house in full uniform a couple times. I remember how strong and manly he looked. I would trust him to defend a whole world, but defending a country seems fitting too. He had the best laugh, just like my dad. I like to think that he provided some laughter for others while on duty and inspired them with his strength the way he inspired me.

My brother joined the National Guard when I was in high school, and I still keep with me the letter he sent me from boot camp. Just as my Great Pop Pop and Uncle John were probably cracking jokes, here was my brother telling me to save him a slice of pizza for when he gets back.

Though I don’t know anyone personally who died in service, I know it is important to keep them in my heart and in my prayers. Though they are strangers to me; I am also a stranger to them, and that did not hinder their decision to sacrifice their life for me, so the least I can do is take a day to extend a prayer of thanksgiving for what they’ve done for my life.

When my life is filled with joyful moments like those I experience on Memorial Day, with family gathered around and the grill turned on, I will remember those who died in military service. When the sun passes through the trees and warms the grass, I walk through on my way to greet a family member I haven’t seen in 6 months, I will remember those who gave their life for my sake. When the classic rock music starts to play and my dad and uncles, with their identical beards and identical laughter, all begin to discuss whatever hilarious thing has happened to them recently, I will remember the veterans. When I mix chalk in water and paint the American flag on my little brother's backs, and they start to chant "U.S.A" as they run through the yard, I will think how proud I am to be American. When the guests have all left and it is just me and my family at the end of the day, and we search "patriotic movies" on Amazon Prime, and inevitably land on something starring Mel Gibson, I will appreciate the opportunity I have to do so because of the sacrifice of a stranger.

Read other articles by Dolores Hans

Why Decoration Day

Claire Doll
MSMU Class of 2024

It’s our staff meeting in April, five o’clock in the library. The sun pokes its golden rays into the window, and around us, college students are busy at work, studying or reading or talking. Your trusted News-Journal staff sits in a circle, discussing our goals for the next edition, when editor Mike Hillman asks this question. Silence spills upon us, and we all exchange puzzled looks.

"Is it—a day celebrating decorations?" someone asks, and it might’ve been me. After some scattered laughter from the staff, Mike shakes his head. "Anyone else?" he asks.

When we’re all quiet, he tells us to Google Decoration Day. We race to our phones like it’s some competition, and after quickly typing in the words, we fall upon a very familiar term: Memorial Day. Memorial Day? And then it hits me: It’s about to be May, and Memorial Day is in May, and Mike wants us to write about Decoration Day, but why was it even called Decoration Day if we never use that name anymore?

When I think of Memorial Day, I think of pools opening in the summer, and blue chlorinated water, and too many children swimming in circles. I think of cookouts and days off and hot dogs. And honestly, I will fully admit: the purpose of Memorial Day rarely crosses my mind on this occasion. I’m too busy prepping for the cookouts or planning to enjoy the beautiful weather.

But why Decoration Day? American Battle Monuments Commission says, "The 30th Day of May 1868 is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in the defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village, and hamlet churchyard in the land." The idea of "decoration" has to do with the graves of those who so willingly gave their lives to fight for our countries. Immediately after learning this definition, I’m sent back to my childhood, when my grandmother would take my sister and me on drives to the cemetery. On bright, blue-skyed days, the graves would be adorned with flowers, little bursts of colors that distinguish each gravestone.

I had a conversation about this concept with a friend. Why are cemeteries deemed as scary? Why do we think they’re haunted, and that we must stay away from them? Cemeteries are beautiful, sacred places where we can connect with our loved ones, physically and in the most human way possible, beyond their deaths.

So, why is the holiday not called "Decoration Day" anymore?

American Battle Monuments Commission continues by saying, "Over the years, the meaning of Decoration Day evolved, gradually expanding from a commemoration of Civil War dead, into a day to honor fallen members of the American armed forces from all wars." While the embodiment of the holiday remains, we continue to expand upon its meaning through constant and present reflection. In a way, it’s heartening to know that Memorial Day immediately manifests honor, celebration, and remembrance.

ROTC Cadet at the Mount, Junior Lorenzo DiVentura, echoes this meaning in his work with his service to our country in his collegiate years. Although Memorial Day falls outside of the academic calendar, DiVentura is still heavily involved in acts of service on the holiday. "I’ve volunteered with my local VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars) to participate in firing parties at cemeteries and parades for Memorial Day," he says. DiVentura joined ROTC not only because the military has always been a solid, reliable option for his future, but also because his great-grandparents and cousins have served at one time or another and have inspired him to continue doing so. "My plans are to commission with the PA National Guard, and then find a civilian job from there," he says.

But above all, he argues that knowing the history of Memorial Day is extremely significant. "Knowing the meaning of Memorial Day is important because the 3-day weekend and BBQs don’t come from nowhere; thousands of tombstones came first," DiVentura says. This Memorial Day, he plans to continue remembering those who have served and lost their lives for our country.

So, does it matter what we call Memorial Day, so long as we implement its values? While the name "Decoration Day" is a beautiful ode to the flower-adorned graves and the humanely connection we have with cemeteries, "Memorial Day" also encompasses the innate and important value to remember.

On Monday, May 27th, do these things in addition to your cookouts and pool days: Visit your local veterans cemetery and lay flowers on the graves—to those you don’t know, and to those you do. Call a family member who once served, and thank them. Read stories and articles about those who have passed, and truly, truly dwell on what this day was originally for. I promise, there are ample days in May to swim or host a barbeque. For those who gave their lives, the very least we can do is exchange a couple hours of thoughts, prayers, and reflections in return.

To close this article, I’d like to personally thank Cadet Lorenzo DiVentura and the rest of the Mount St. Mary’s University ROTC Cadets for their promise to our country and their mission to make days like Memorial Day full of remembrance and honor.

The U.S. Army Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) program, offered at Mount St. Mary’s University, partners with the military science department at McDaniel College to provide a military pathway post-graduation. Many ROTC cadets, including DiVentura, are guaranteed jobs following their service and have spent their time at the Mount taking regular classes alongside ROTC Advanced Courses. The cadets have developed values of challenge, competition while building meaningful skills that will last for life.

Read other articles by Claire Doll

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