Final Salute To Frank Perconte

One Of The Oldest Surviving Members Of The Band Of Brothers

Frank Perconte died on October 24, 2013, at his long-time home in Joliet. He was 96 years old. I can tell you from visiting him several times since my first interview with him in May of 2011 that he was a man of honor, courage and grace.

His death could have very easily taken place 69 years earlier in Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge where he was hit in the right hip with a bullet, while trying to peek up over a dirt mound. That was a million-dollar wound he would say the minute that deadly moment was brought up. The bullet went right through his right buttocks and out his thigh. “Best thing that ever happened to me,” said Frank, repeating that line as often as he was asked about the injury. “Made me a disabled veteran and I got a pension out of it.”

Frank Perconte was just like hundreds of thousands of other brave soldiers who fought in World War II, until Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg decided to produce a mini-series on Easy Company, part of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment in the 101st Airborne Division, known as the Screaming Eagles. The Band of Brothers made household names out of soldiers like Perconte, Dick Winters, Joe Toye, Babe Heffron, Bill Guarnere, Bull Randleman, David Webster, Carwood Lipton, Don Malarkey, Shifty Powers, Buck Compton, Lewis Nixon and Ronald Speirs. They all fought bravely, landing behind enemy lines early on the morning of June 6, 1944 with the mission of knocking out the German guns around “Causeway 2” overlooking Utah Beach. They were successful disabling a battery of four German guns, saving the lives of countless American soldiers in the process of landing on Utah Beach.

But that was only the beginning and it is all recounted in the book, Band of Brothers by Stephen Ambrose as well as the award-winning mini-series by Hanks and Spielberg. When one thinks about the luck a soldier like Perconte had to have to make it from D-Day all the way into Germany with just one wound, it’s pretty amazing. All it would have taken is one stray bullet from a German machine gun, one piece of flying shrapnel from an artillery shell fired by a Howitzer cannon, one grenade thrown close enough in his direction, one round from a German Panzer tank. It was happening all around him during his year in battle, but he walked away a physically healthy man, able to go on and live his life.

I think about that scene in Saving Private Ryan when the older private Ryan (Matt Damon) is standing in the cemetery looking at the gravesite of Captain John Miller (Tom Hanks), the man who saved his life. I’m sure Frank Perconte and every other soldier who fought in World War II felt the same way, grateful to be alive, but wondering why they are allowed to live when so many others paid the ultimate sacrifice. Luck? Destiny?

When Frank returned from the war in 1945, he was hired by the U.S. Post Office a few years later and delivered mail for the next 33 years in Joliet, his hometown he knew so well from his days as a youth. The people on his route didn’t know that they had a war hero delivering their mail each day. He never brought it up. He was just like an entire generation of soldiers who returned home.

In my neighborhood of St. Bede’s, we never knew we were surrounded by World War II veterans who had survived D-Day, fought through France, Belgium and into Germany; fought in the Pacific; fought in Korea. In 2015, I went to visit one of my neighbors, Joseph Wagner, who lived across the street from us. It was then I found out he was a fighter pilot in World War II tasked with flying over the East Coast near Baltimore looking for German submarines. I was amazed! All the years seeing him across the street, I had no idea.

But that is how it was for those veterans. It was never talked about. They were just the dads in our neighborhood, most of whom were blue-collar workers employed by the City of Chicago in some capacity.

That was the mindset of Frank Perconte. He would tell you what happened to him in the war, if asked about it. If not asked, he wouldn't bring it up. But of course, I brought it up every visit and Frank provided me with the history and insight only a solider who had been there could reveal. Having heard Frank repeat the stories verbatim so many times, I’m sure that when Easy Company was making their way into the battle of Foy, or later in the Battle of the Bulge, none ever imagined their acts of courage would one day be recounted in such a grand fashion. Like the other soldiers in the war, they were just doing their duty, what was expected of them.

Frank and his wife Evelyn in their youth

Frank was one of the lucky ones. He went on to have a very nice life, building a new house in Joliet, married to the love of his life, Evelyn, and had a son, Richard. Having visited Frank several times, I can tell you the man never complained; always had a smile on his face. Why not? He fought and survived through one of the most horrific battles in the history of mankind.

He really enjoyed the excitement that the Band of Brothers book and mini-series brought into his life. He loved the guys of the 506, loved the reunions, loved being able to attend the Emmy Awards with the actor who played him, James Madio. Frank developed a very special bond with Madio. He took an interest in the actor’s life and they stayed in touch by phone.

Frank Perconte and James Madio together visiting World War II sites

“He has his own office now, he’s doing really well,” Frank told me in the summer of 2013. Later he told me, “He and his wife just had their first baby.” There was a wonderful photo in Frank’s living room of he and Madio sitting side by side with their backs to the camera. I wonder how many Hollywood actors form that kind of bond with the characters they portray? I don’t know, but I do know that Frank Perconte cherished it and appreciated it. Any time James Madio called, it brought a moment of joy into Frank’s life, which he would recall for weeks on end.

Last May, I sat on the couch across from Frank in his brown reclining chair as he looked out the window, then down at his daily Joliet Herald resting atop the table. “My goal is to live to be 100,” he said, chuckling. I never doubted he'd make it. This was a tough guy. I thought for certain Willard Scott would be calling out his name for Smuckers on the Today Show. But God had other plans and drafted him into heaven to join his lovely wife Eveyln.

God bless you Frank Perconte. Thank you for your service.