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Al DuClur's avatar

Naples ‘44 is an excellent book that cleared up something that happened to my father in WW2.

Towards the end of the war, he was a sergeant stationed in Italy. One night he and another soldier were ordered to guard a pharmacy. Pharmacies were routinely robbed.

My father and the other guy fought off a gang of Italians trying to rob it. In true Army gratitude he was called into his commanding officer's office the next day. The officer told him, "Sit down sergeant. Stand up corporal."

The demotion played a key role in my father's lifelong hatred of Italians. Pizza and spaghetti were banned in our house.

Naples ‘44 clarified his demotion for me. Mussolini had squashed the mafia. It is well known that the Allied military partnered with the Genovese crime family and Lucky Luciano to rebuild the mafia and use them to undermine the Italian government. Lewis wrote that one of the rackets they gave to the mafia was control of the illegal pharma trade. That seems to do a good job of explaining why my dad was punished for not letting the pharmacy be robbed.

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Linh Dinh's avatar

Hi everyone,

Go here for the video and transcript of David Martin's presentation at the EU covid conference on 5/28/23:

https://linhdinhphotos.blogspot.com/2023/06/52823.html

Linh

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