1. They served their country70th anniversary
of end of WWII
of for beer to be drunk on a Naval ship.
Sterling was discharged in October 1945, and
shipped to a Naval training center in San Diego,
where he spent six months training recruits.
Wearing his uniform, Sterling then hitchhiked
to Chicago and made his way home by train to
Amityville, where he recalled seeing the historic clock
in the Village, thinking to himself, “I never thought I
would see this clock again.”
Sterling went home to 135 Ketcham Avenue at the
time, took off his uniform, and never put it back on
again.
Sterling later moved to Mole Place, where he built
a house for his family, and now resides on Saltbox
Path.
Upon his return home, Sterling graduated from
Suffolk Community College in 1957, and worked as
a Suffolk County fire marshall for 20 years. He also
worked for Republic Aviation Corporation briefly,
as he recalls, “I couldn’t stand working at a desk all
day.”
Prior to joining the Navy, Sterling met his first wife,
Kathroin Emmerick, through a friend. They were
married in 1948 in Wantagh, and had two children,
Wayne and Janet. Wayne finished his service of 35
years in the Navy Reserves, and Janet works for an
engineering firm on Long Island.
Sterling also has a five-year-old granddaughter,
Kaydie.
Followingthedeathofhisfirstwife,Sterlingmarried
Shirley Mahoney, and spent four months traveling all
over the United States.
Sterling is of Norwegian and Finnish descent, has
also traveled to Norway and England and returned to
Alaska three more times - encouraging everyone to
visit there at least once in their lifetime. He is also a
member of the American Legion in Wantagh, enjoys
visits from his children and fellow military friends
and spends his alone time reading.
Wilbur Sterling,
U.S. Navy
(Continued from Page 3)
Words come easy to George D. Johnson of Ami-
tyville. By his own assessment he’s a “talker.”
But he’s also unassuming and direct, even when he
talks about his military service during World War II it
is to the point. “I had to go, so I went,” he says recall-
ing the draft notice he got in 1943. He was 22 years
old at the time. “When people say to me ‘thank you
for your service’, I tell them no need to thank me, I
didn’t volunteer.” He laughs.
But Johnson’s simple acceptance of his responsibil-
ity has been handed down to him. Many in his fam-
ily have served in the military, including his uncles
and his son, a Vietnam veteran. He even has a great
uncle who served in the Civil War, and the cracked,
yellowed, paperwork to prove it.
Johnson took basic training in Camp Claiborne,
Louisiana, a facility that trained more than a half mil-
lion men from 1939 to 1946. From there he went to
George D. Johnson,
U.S. Navy
Camp Hood in Killeen, Texas, which was renamed
Fort Hood in 1950 for specialist training. Follow-
ing that he was shipped to Europe as a quartermas-
ter. During World War II, the Quartermaster Corps
trained thousands of soldiers to fill specialized roles
in every theater of operation-from the Pacific Isles
and China-Burma-India Theater to North Africa, Ita-
ly, and central and northern Europe. They performed
heroically at such far off places as Bataan, Iwo Jima,
Leyte, Salerno, Anzio, Normandy and Bastogne. At
the height of the war, quartermasters were provid-
ing over 70,000 different supply items and more than
24 million meals each day. When it was over, they
had recovered and buried nearly a quarter of a mil-
lion soldiers in temporary cemeteries around the
world. More than 4,000 quartermaster soldiers lost
their lives in World War II.
Johnson was one of the lucky ones, however. He
served with the 828 Tank Destroyer Battalion, a segre-
gated African American unit, and despite having seen
action in places like St. Lux, France and the Battle of
Aachen in October, 1944, Johnson survived the war
and came back home to Amityville. He was among
the follow-up troops that landed on Omaha Beach.
“I remember getting there. We gave each soldier
ammunition, cigarettes and a Bible,” he said.
He also recalls the sights he saw, including the va-
cant eyes of so many soldiers, he said.
“There was one young guy sitting down leaning
against a tree,” he said. “I could tell he was in mis-
ery.”
Johnson was honorably discharged in December
1945. He earned the European African Middle East-
ern Service Medal, Good Conduct Medal, WWII
Victory Medal and American Service Medal. He of-
ten sits now with his grandchildren and great grand-
children looking over the history of their lives.
George D. Johnson holds historical papers docu-
menting his family’s military history.
by Eileen Interiano
While many men dreaded those greetings from Uncle
Sam, the draft letter, Emil DiPaola Jr. took the initiative in
March1945andenlistedintheU.SNavy.Hewas17years
old. DiPaola, a resident of Amityville, was in his first year
of Queen’s College
“I decided to join the Navy because that’s where I knew
I wanted to serve my country,” said DiPaola. “I wanted to
defend our country after I had heard about the sneak at-
tackonPearlHarborbytheJapanese,whichcausedmany
casualties of our servicemen and civilians.”
DiPaola, who was born and raised in Forest Hills,
Queens, graduated from high school there and started
college at the age of 16. His three older brothers had al-
ready been drafted or enlisted in the army. Prior to enlist-
ing into the Navy, DiPaola spent his days helping his par-
entsbyworkingintheirfamily-ownedfruitandvegetable
market.
“Iwasoneoutofeightkids,”saidDiPaola.“Iknewwhat
it was like to not have any money. I lived through the
Great Depression.”
In the Navy, DiPaola was placed in the Combat Intel-
ligence Center (CIC). He spent many “sleepness nights”
rotating watch and operating the radar in the aircraft car-
rier USS Tarawa CV-40.
“We had many duties, one of which consisted of ro-
tating watch, which initially meant getting two hours of
sleep, but it was our job,” he said. “There we about 2,500
men aboard.”
As DiPaola and his crew prepared to go into combat,
they discovered that the Armistice had been signed and
that they would be discharged in July 1946.
“The war was over and the boys were coming home,”
said DiPaola, as he reminisced. “Unfortunately, those that
didn’t make it home were the ones who gave us our free-
dom. They were the ones that lost their lives, and are the
real heroes.”
After being discharged, DiPaola continued his passion
for serving his country and joined the American Legion
Emil DiPaola Jr.,
U.S. Navy
(Continued on Page 6 )
June 1, 2015, AMITYVILLE RECORD • 5

2. They served their country70th anniversary
of end of WWII
in Forest Hills in September 1946. He also continued
his studies and went back to Queen’s College for two
semesters but later transferred to Baruch College of
Business Administration.
During his summer break, DiPaola worked at E.F.
Hutton, a Wall Street firm, where he began his career
as a financial consultant. He graduated from Baruch
College and obtained a bachelor’s of business admin-
istration.
DiPaola married Genevieve Hageman in 1950,
and had two children Richard and Patricia. He met
his wife through a friend and said, “It was love at first
sight.”
She died in Aug. 2011 after 61 years of marriage.
DiPaola continued to work at E.F Hutton, which
later became Smith Barney Company, and was elect-
edpostcommander,ContinentalPost,AmericanLe-
gion, Forest Hills in 1955.
In the American Legion, he also received many
awards,twoofwhichincludedtheLifetimeMember-
ship Award (1978) and the Queens County Legion-
naire of the Year Award (2007).
DiPaola moved to Amityville in 1980 and later re-
tiredfromSmithBarneyCompanywhereheworked
for 46 years. He retired as the vice president and as a
financial consultant.
HeoftenthinksabouthistimeintheNavy,hesaid,
and has a photo album filled with memories.
Emil DiPaola Jr.,
U.S. Navy
(Continued from Page 5)
by Eileen Interiano
As the war began, William T. Lauder decided
he wanted to enlist in the Navy. But due to an eye
condition he was denied the opportunity. However,
Lauder patiently awaited the drafting letter, which
he knew was “going to happen.”
“I was drafted into the army infantry during col-
lege and was sent down to Alabama where I did ba-
sic training,” said Lauder. “After that I was shipped
out to Missouri where I was in the Eighth division,
28 regiment First Battalion Company A.”
Lauder then continued his desert training in Ar-
izona but was sent to the East Coast “during the
winter in his summer uniform.” In 1943, he was
sent for further training to Northern Ireland in a
village, which had been an area of training during
World War I.
“After training we were sent to France on July 4th
1944,” said Lauder. “There we were being told the
German aircraft had been decimated and eliminat-
ed so we climbed down into landing craft and pre-
ceded to land on the beach in three feet of water.”
The news at the time said that the beachhead was
secure but half way to the beach, a plane headed to-
wards him and his fellows. I raised questions about
it and they said that it was one of ours. But it began
shooting at us and we were strafed.”
When they finally landed, Lauder recalls hav-
ing to walk a 25-mile hike while carrying all the
equipment they owned, which meant, in addition
to their weapons and ammunition, wearing all of
their three uniforms.
“It wasn’t a pleasant walk,” said Lauder. “We
walked along the beach and after walking 20 miles
we turned to high ground and up ahead was the
front line. On July 7 we were in an orchard wait-
ing to go on line and I
thought to myself, How
did I get myself into this
position? I thought I was
so brilliant.”
In the orchard, Lauder
heard someone call out
asking if anyone spoke
French. “I volunteered,”
he said.
He was transferred to
the Battalion headquar-
ters. The next day he
discovered that many
of the company he had
been with had been
killed and scattered and
that the Germans had
captured his former
squad.
“It was an act of God
as to how I survived,” said Lauder. “If I had
been there, I would have been dead with my friend,
the first sergeant.”
Lauder was later called back to Co.A and pro-
moted from private to supply sergeant. As the war
continued, Lauder received four battle stars and the
Bronze Star with Cluster for Heroic Achievement.
He was awarded the Bronze Star, for carrying am-
munition in a wheelbarrow in the face of heavy en-
emy machine gun fire.
Once the army moved
eastward, things became
better because “we had the
gasoline and the Germans
didn’t,” he said. However,
Lauder recalls warning the
Army about the Germans
bringing up tanks every
night and that it could pos-
sibly lead to trouble. Many
didn’t believe him, but this
was the start of the Battle of
the Bulge.
Eventually news was re-
ceived that the war was over.
“Word came out from head-
quarters and we sensed that
it was over,” said Lauder.
Lauder was discharged
from the Army in October
1945 and returned to Amityville. He was married
a month later to Rose E. Abbe, and the couple had
two daughters, Jane and Victoria. They also have
three grandchildren.
William T. Lauder,
U.S. Army
(Continued on Page 7 )
At left, recent photo of William T. Lauder.
Above, Lauder is shown, center, at Fort Leonard
Wood, Missouri, 1943.
6 • AMITYVILLE RECORD, July 1, 2014