Gallery 50 donated by Joe Inglese, contact him @ jingle98@verizon.net

The candid photos of Marc Palombi were taken by Pvt. Russ Eick who was the gunner on the halftrack my late father-in-law Marc Palombi served on during World War II. Pvt. Eick had his camera with him and took many photos according to my father-in-law, but these photos of chow time and with the French girls were ones my father-in-law had never seen until I found them in the 3rd Armored Division history. Their halftrack was part of C Battery of the 486th Armored Anti Aircraft Battalion. Their particular halftrack "Hells Bells" was credited with shooting down the first enemy aircraft by Allied forces on German soil. The photo of Marc Palombi and his friends Frank Piccola and Peter Slavis was a snapshot taken in the neighborhood of Henry St. in Amsterdam where Marc grew up. This was before the war. My father-in-law was always proud of his service during World War II. He was a 1940 graduate of Wilbur H. Lynch High School. He passed away on September 14, 2007.
The origin of the photos of John Zabelski are pretty much unknown. I want to think that the photos of his ship LST 288 may have been acquired when he went to a reunion. The group photo in New Orleans is in a cardboard frame with the names and addresses of his shipmates written around the outside of the frame. I came into possession of these pictures by accident. They had been put into the recycle bin at the Town of Florida transfer station and the attendant Marie Belfance saved them. She gave them to me when I recognized John Zabelski from his GASD photo. I called John and he told me to keep the pictures. This was about three or four years ago. That November I had John as one of our guests for the Veteran's Day program at McNulty Academy. John passed away on August 30, 2008. THESE PHOTOS ARE NOT FOR SALE.