A Wartime Journey From Lewis Run, PA to Germany and Back: World War II Combat Experiences of Staff Sergeant Nataline Piscitelli

This is the story of the journey of a young man from a small, rural town that takes him from Lewis Run, PA to the battlefields of Europe during World War II. His story tells us what it was really like in the field while serving his country. He leaves behind his large, close-knit Italian family when he volunteers for the U. S. Army. After training, he is deployed with thousands of other brand-new soldiers to the war zones in France and Germany. He ends up under the command of General George S. Patton and becomes a tank commander. Though injured during the Battle of the Bulge, he is reassigned and sent back out into battle until the end of the war. These experiences help make him the man he would become. With information provided by original V-mail letters and postcards to family members, in-person interviews, and quotes from sources that personally experienced and wrote about that period of history, we were able to put together the adventures and combat experiences encountered by Staff Sergeant Nataline Anthony Piscitelli. This story was originally researched and written by Nat’s nephew, Colonel Albert C. Costanzo, U.S. Army (Retired). Al grew up with his uncle in Lewis Run, PA, and corresponded with him during World War II. In 1998, Albert began the painstaking process of writing his uncle’s story. When Albert passed in 2011, at age 84, his family forwarded all his research documents, the files he created, and the draft manuscript to Nat’s daughter, Peggy Anne Piscitelli Bidondo, who completed the story in 2019.