ANGELO ROSELLA

"I FEEL MUCH BETTER NOW"
   Sergeant Angelo Rosella of Columbus Comforted by Wife

Georgia GI Double Amputee
Cheerfully Plans for Future

   WASHINGTON, Jan. 28 (AP) With his pretty brunette wife holding his hand, Sgt. Angelo Rosella smiled from his Walter Reed Hospital cot and said "I feel much better now."
   He had just been recalling a snowy, zero, day of last November when a series of events began near the Chosin reservoir of North Korea that left him wounded, a prisoner, and, eventually, a double amputee.
   The 25-year-old sergeant, a native of Windber, Pa., and now a resident of Columbus, Ga., talked calmly of those nightmare days and nights. But he's glad they're. over.
   Now, he said, he's looking forward to a new life with his 22 year-old wife, Annie Laura, and their four-year-old son, Robert.
   There hasn't been the time or occasion to do any real planning. But he's thinking now that when he leaves Walter Reed, he'll sign up with a GI training school in Georgia and see what kind of trade he can learn.
  It was last Nov 27 that things began happening for Rosella. A bullet penetrated his left hand, shattered the left side of his jaw and lodged in his right shoulder. Another caught him in the right thigh.
   All that night and much of the next day he lay in the cold and the snow. The Chinese Reds took all of his personal belongings. But what really counted, they also took his boots. "That's how I lost my feet," he said.

   The Chinese took him prisoner in the early evening of Nov. 28. With several other members of the American Seventh Division's 31st infantry regiment, a few South Koreans and some British, Rosella was placed in a nearby shack, where they remained 10 days.   "Some of our Marines found us in the shack," he recalled. "I was put on a truck and taken to a Marine aid station. Then I was taken by ambulance to an air field. A plane flew me to the hospital ship, Consolation. They took care of my wounds on the ship. But my feet had to be taken care of in Japan."
   Rosella left Tokyo Jan. 17 on a flying trip that had him in Walter Reed last week. Mrs. Rosella, her mother, Mrs. C. C. Peed, and little Robert left for Walter Reed as soon as they could get ready.  Rosella met his wife when he was stationed at Fort Benning Ga., during the last war. They were married Aug. 18. 1944. He was discharged from the Army in January. 1946. But after two years, Rosella re-enlisted. He left for Korea last August.

[The Atlanta Constitution, Atlanta, GA,29 Jan 1951, Mon, Page 2]

AT ANDREWS AIR FORCE BASE in Maryland, Cpl Pat Toliver, Beckley, W. Va.; Flight Nurse Capt. Angelica Gulick, Mobile, Ala., and Sgt Angelo Rosella, Columbus, Ga., wave goodbye before taking off for home during the Christmas holidays.  In a project called  "Operation Santa Claus," 63 disabled veterans of World war II and the Korean War are being transported to their homes for the holidays. (International)

[The News-Herald, Franklin, A, 21 Dec 1951, Fri, Page 11]

[courtesy of Christine Thacker]

Grave marker for Angelo Rosella in the Garden of the Resurrection, Parkhill Cemetery, Columbus (Muscogee county), Georgia.

Angelo registered for the draft ca. 1943 and enlisted in the army at New Cumberland, PA on 18 January 1944.

Pvt Rosella was transferred from 82nd Airborne Hq to Service Company, 508th PIR on 3 October 1944.  He was transferred to Company C on 8 December 1944.

On 28 January 1945, Pvt Rosella was evacuated to a field hospital as a "non-combat injury".  He returned to the company on 18 March 1945.

He returned to the United States on 4 January 1946 and was discharged at Unit A Separation Center, Indian Gap Military Reservation, PA.