Penn Hills father and daughter publish a memoir documenting a “ Forgotten War .”
The Italian Campaign
WWII Veteran Albert DeFazio and his daughter , Valerie DeFazio Vacula .
Penn Hills father and daughter publish a memoir documenting a “ Forgotten War .”
BY JENNIFER BROZAK
One day , when Penn Hills native Valerie DeFazio Vacula was a teenager , she walked in on her father , Albert , as he was cleaning out his bedroom drawers . She saw a medal lying on the bed . She asked , “ Dad , where did you get this medal ? Did you win it ?” “ Kind of ,” he said .
The elder DeFazio explained to his daughter that he had been in a war , and that the medal she was inquiring about was a Purple Heart . She was shocked .
It was at that moment that Vacula learned her father , who is now 91 , was a World War II veteran . Decades later , she would learn that he had survived the Italian Campaign , one of the bloodiest conflicts in World War history .
Together with her father , Vacula has authored “ The Italian Campaign : One Soldier ’ s Story of a Forgotten War .” The book is based on DeFazio ’ s own memoirs , which he handwrote as part of an archival project for Congressman Mike Doyle .
“ At the time , I was in my late 70s . I was retired and had nothing else to do , so I sat down and
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