Salvatore Frank “Sal” Bellino,.born 02-07-1920 in Massapequa, Nassau County, New York, 
United States, to Calogera Bellino and Elizabeth Bellino. Sal was raised in a warm Italian family, where his father was a baker. Already on the age of 21 Frank enlisted the American Army 
.Sal joined the paratroops because he wanted to be part of an elite force and he liked flying. First he should be a medic but he did not like that. That’s why he made a request to be a paratrooper. 
After he received a positive answer he did not tell anybody, except his sister Sarah. She told it to her mother and when the little Italian woman heard that news, she screamed loud, For a month she was so upset and tried to persuade him not to be a paratrooper.
When she had seen a movie about the paratroopers she always dreamed that her son would burn in his plane or that he would be shot dead hanging on his chute.
To him learning how to jump out of an airplane was the most impressive part of his training. The most vived memory about the war is jump over Normandy.
Sal had landed in a tree 
and two Germans spotted him. They shot at him but missed. Frank does not know whether is was because he was dead or because their commander called them to come back.. They both turned and walked away from him, what a luck. Frank remembered vividy the bad times in Bastogne when his feet were frozen. Sal knew that when he would take off his shoes he would lose his feet, so he did not. Later on he treated in a hospital for a while and was lucky he did not loose his feet.There was another experience that made a hufeimpression to him. He was attacked by a young German with a bayonet. He was stabbed above his eye 
and felt the blood stream over his face. His only thought was: ‘It is he or me” and shot him. Frank always remember the face of the young man. Blond, blueeyes. Still a kid. He fell backwards to the ground with his euyes still open. While Sal walked away he closed the boy’s eyes and said “sorry”
Sal lucky to survive the war and was further involved in the Battle of the Bulge, 
where it was so cold that he almost lost his feet, Operation Market Garden, the liberation of my country and also of my hometown Eindhoven. 
and finished with the Easy Company in Hitlers house on the Berghof. 
. Yes Sal came home save .
After the war Sal married Theresa Bellino 
and worked as a supervisor with 47 men in the sanitation branch, All his family, including his in-laws, were very proud of what he had done for the liberation of Holland and Europe and the Dutch people and the webmaster are also very very greatful. The Dutch every year still celebrate the liberation day “Remember September” Operation Market Garden on September 18th with parades and festifalls. The webmaster here in his garden with Captain Joe Crilley 506Th
.
Sal told that. with the passing of the years, he more often thought about what happened during the war. He prayed every night for his buddies who were killed in action and he thanked God every day for coming back alive. After the war he had contact with several of his friends by mail. He found it important to remember the sacrifices madefor the freedom Europe. Like all the other E Co 
of the Screaming Eagles 
veterans, Sal was very proud that he had served with the Easy Compagny. 506 PIR. The many memorabiliain his hiuse and his licence plateare the witnesses of that pride. Prominent present in his house is a photo with Sal while Winston Churchill 
and Dwight David “Ike” Eisenhower 
inspect the trops before D-Day. 
Because his wife Terry always asked where Sal was on that photo he added a golden star and his nave above his head so she always would knowwhereb he was.
Death and burial ground of Bellino, Salvatore Frank “Sal”.
Salvatore Frank “Sal” Bellino, age 85, passed on 06-10-2005, at Broadmoor Assisted Living in Ford Pierce. Frank lived in Port St Lucie and is buried at Fort Pierce, Hillcrest Memorial Gardens, Ford Pierce 6026 US-1, Fort Pierce, Florida 34946,
In Port St Lucie lived another 101 airborne para of the 502nd Infantry Regiment (502nd IR). 
Corporal Merlano, Louis Philip “Lou”
We visited Lou a 20 years ago and he gave me a piece of his orignal D-Day parchute We had a great meetings with the WW2 para veterans in Florida, organised by Lou and Sal for sure must have been their too. We also visited Lou’s grave on Arlington Cemetery..”‘great guy”.
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