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War Tales Told For Posterity

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 12, 2007

LAND O' LAKES - At 86, Leonard Messana seems as likely to forget his World War II experiences as he is to lose his Brooklyn accent.

Surrounded by Germans during the Battle of the Bulge, Messana remembers thinking he was a "goner" until more airplanes than he had ever seen roared over the battlefield en route to Berlin.

For American troops, the sight of friendly fighter planes was an adrenaline-pumping morale booster.

"I wonder what the Germans thought," Messana said.

Messana and four other residents at Baldomero Lopez State Veterans' Nursing Home in Land O' Lakes were interviewed last week by Ed Towey, president of a Tallahassee communications firm.

The interviews are part of an ongoing history project for the Library of Congress; the material also is shared with the Institute on World War II and the Human Experience at Florida State University.

Every year, Towey conducts interviews at the state's five nursing homes for veterans. Besides war veterans, he also talks with "those who supported those who served."

Before speaking with Messana last week, Towey spent an hour with Agnes Krol, a cook with the Women's Army Corps during World War II. A New Hampshire native, Krol served in Spokane, Wash., and Newark, N.J., from December 1941 to November 1945.

A new resident at Baldomero Lopez, Krol said she especially remembered the large mess halls full of soldiers she and others fed at Thanksgiving.

Geoff Fox

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