104-year-old WWII veteran joined Navy out of sense of duty

Mario Pennesi sat in his son's Hancock-area home as Maryland Del. Terry Baker presented him with a Maryland General Assembly ceremonial certificate recognizing him as one of the oldest surviving World War II veterans.

"Quite an accomplishment," said Pennesi, 104 1/2, when asked what he thought about the recognition.

With a smile, he asked, "Did I accomplish anything?"

"You accomplished a lot," said his son, John Pennesi.

Not unexpectedly at his age, Mario has some memory issues. Even before those, like many veterans, Pennesi did not often talk about his wartime experiences with family, John said.

"Just what they went through," Baker, R-Washington/Allegany, said with respect when asked his thoughts about Pennesi's service and World War II veterans. They were "real warriors," he said.

Baker's father, Warren D. Baker Sr., served with the Army's 29th Infantry, Company B out of Hagerstown, during World War II.

The certificate states Pennesi's "dedication to our country is greatly appreciated and we honor you for your faithful service."

Pennesi enlisted with the Navy in Martinsburg, W.Va., in May 1940, according to his Navy honorable discharge papers.

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John Pennesi said his father told him he joined the Navy out of a "sense of duty."

Pennesi was born in Teramo in the Abruzzo region of eastern Italy on April 7, 1919.

His parents, Giuseppe (Joe) and Marianna Pennesi, brought him to the states in 1924.

When Mario enlisted in the Navy in 1940, Italy was still recovering from World War I and was under Fascist rule. It became one of the Axis Powers, opponents of the Allied Powers (led by Great Britain, the U.S. and the Soviet Union) during World War II.

Mario was "very grateful to be an American," John said.

When people would thank his father for his military service, John said his father's response would be, "No, thank my country for allowing me to serve them."

Mario went through the Naval Mine Warfare School in Yorktown, Va., and the Underwater Sound School in Boston.

He was stationed at the then-called Navy Operating Base in Norfolk and the Section Base at Little Creek, Va., before joining the U.S. Pacific Fleet.

Mario served as a chief electrician's mate on a minesweeper, his son said.

"It was dangerous work," John said.

Cables 600 yards long were dragged behind a boat, with grappling hooks in the water to drag for mines, John recalled his father explaining. Many of the mines would be submerged about 5 feet.

Navy crews would drag those cables until they snagged, with the mines sometimes detonating on impact, John recalls his father saying. Otherwise, they would pull the mine to the surface and fire rifles at it until it detonated.

Smaller, wooden-hulled boats were used for minesweeping missions. These boats were assigned to larger Navy ships.

His father's minesweeping operations were mostly in the South Pacific, where he served from 1943 to 1945.

Mario's rank was chief petty officer/chief electrician's mate.

John said his father would have loved to have made a career out of Navy service, but he used to say he carried a bucket with him wherever he went on the ship.

He always remarked about the South Pacific's beautiful islands and the most beautiful azure color of the sea, John said.

That included seeing Iwo Jima before the 1945 battle when Mario described the island as lush and green with crops, John said. When his father saw the island after the battle, Mario said it was just barren, completely destroyed.

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Pennesi's life before and after the war

When Mario was a child, his father and uncles worked at the quarry near the east side of Hagerstown, and Mario lived with his family on a little street called Green Row on the cement company's property. That company is now known as Holcim US.

Mario went to White Oak Forrest School in Fiddlersburg, the area around Antietam Drive. Then he attended Hagerstown High School for a while before leaving to work in the family business of peddling produce, Mario told The Herald-Mail in 2016.

After the war, at age 33, Mario met, dated and married Cecelia Evelyn Bowles. They had four children: Linda Kunkle of Spring Mills, W.Va.; JoAnne Nave of Funkstown; John; and Anna Maria Pennesi of Bristol, Tenn.

Mario has one grandchild, Kristoffer Lescalleet.

When Mario returned to Hagerstown in 1947 after the war, he bought property off Elgin Boulevard in Hagerstown's West End. Over the years at that site, he opened a trailer park, a general store, and a commercial building with apartments, John said. The Pennesi family lived there for a while during the 1950s and 1960s. That property is now part of Gateway Crossing.

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Sometime after John was born, his parents closed the general store.

From 1947 to 1962, in addition to managing the West End property, Mario Pennesi also distributed and sold produce, John said. He and drivers he hired would haul citrus from Florida, potatoes from Maine, and apples and peaches from Washington County and Franklin County in Pennsylvania. They sold produce at two Pennsylvania stands, door-to-door and elsewhere. John said his father also sold produce, fish and oysters from the Baltimore docks.

In the early 1960s, Mario got a job with Mack Trucks. He worked in production at first, earning his journeyman's card so he could get an electrician position.

He retired from Mack in 1983. The couple moved to Florida, where Cecilia died in 2009.

The Pennesis had two five-acre properties in Florida where they grew produce and Mario built two homes.

In 2013, Mario moved back to Maryland to live with John and his wife, Cindy. John had built a home in the Hancock area in the 1990s, using the skills his father taught him.

Mario helped John grow produce in a quarter-acre garden for many years. He also loved to talk about the Bible and gardening with Cindy, whose late father, Duane Boock of Illinois, was a veteran of World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War.

He still enjoys time in the garden and sitting outside as well as watching old Westerns on Grit TV.

"He loves it here," said John, who drives his father around the ridge top property in an all-terrain utility vehicle.

"I'm very proud of my father. That's truly the greatest generation," John said.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: Maryland World War II veteran, now 104, recognized