Donald W. Bertino was born in September 1924 in a coal mining town in Pennsylvania. The coal company was named after the owner, Charles Berwind [Annotator's Note: Charles Frederick Berwind, founder of Berwind-White Coal Mining Company]. It became Windber, Pennsylvania. Berwind had a lucrative business as he brought in more and more immigrant workers to assist him. It snowed a lot in Windber. Bertino got used to it. It is mountainous country. His father did not make much money. Bertino had a rough life. When his father became a bricklayer, things got a bit better. Bertino helped him with mixing mortar as they worked until late at night. Bertino learned the bricklaying trade and would continue to do so until he was 84 years old. He attended two different schools because there were limitations with the number of rooms at each school. He graduated in June 1943. The Army was drafting individuals. Some of his classmates went to Fort Benning, Georgia and became paratroopers. Bertino was sent his draft notice from Roosevelt [Annotator's Note: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States]. He went into the service and had what seemed to be his first freedom in 18 years. [Annotator's Note: Bertino laughs.]

Donald W. Bertino got on a bus in Windber [Annotator's Note: Windber, Pennsylvania] and was inducted in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. He was in the 131st AAA Gun Battalion [Annotator's Note: Battery D, 131st Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion]. He traveled to England, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Bavaria. He voyaged to England on the British liner Mauretania [Annotator's Note: the RMS Mauretania] with 15,000 troops and only one meal per day. The meal was mutton. He was inducted in July 1943. His basic training was at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas. He went next to Camp Polk, Louisiana [Annotator's Note: now Fort Polk in Vernon Parish, Louisiana]. He went through maneuvers for about three months. Bertino's permanent post was Camp Livingston, Louisiana [Annotator's Note: Camp Livingston, now part of Kisatchie National Forest, Rapides Parish and Grant Parish, Louisiana]. In July [Annotator's Note: July 1944], he was sent to Camp Shanks, New York [Annotator's Note: in Orangetown, New York]. From New York, he sailed to Liverpool, England. It was a new experience. After receiving equipment, he went to Dover [Annotator's Note: Dover, England] and received his life saver belt. He next went to Southampton [Annotator's Note: Southampton, England] and then to LST-533 [Annotator's Note: Landing Ship, Tank 533] to cross the Channel [Annotator's Note: English Channel]. The weather was so bad, the ship reversed course and returned to England. The next day, the water was smooth and the LST beached right up on the coastline. The LST had been loaded in reverse order so when they hit the beach in France, they were ready to go.

Donald W. Bertino arrived on Utah Beach [Annotator's Note: Utah Beach was one of the two American landing beaches in Normandy, France] in Normandy in August 1944. The troops lived off the Navy supplies initially until reaching the 1st Army in Normandy. His first combat was in Belgium. He and his outfit [Annotator's Note: Battery D, 131st Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion] heard voices at night and called a halt. When the people in the distance did not stop, the Americans opened up with M1s [Annotator's Note: .30 caliber M1 semi-automatic rifle, also known as the M1 Garand]. If they had had the .30 calibers [Annotator's Note: Browning M1919 .30 caliber air cooled light machine gun] with them that they were provided later, they could have mowed down the whole group of enemy soldiers. Instead, the found only three bodies in a ditch after that. The M1 was a trusty weapon, but he would have preferred to have the weapons used in Desert Storm [Annotator's Note: Gulf War, codenamed Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm against Iraq, 2 August 1990 to 28 February 1991]. Leaving Belgium, he went to Luxembourg City, Luxembourg in October 1944. From there, the guns were set up in Maastricht [Annotator's Note: Maastricht, Holland]. The Battle of the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945] started while the outfit was at Maastricht. The battalion covered their antiaircraft guns and converted to infantry due the priority of the campaign. The men were loaded with bandoliers and chocolate bars. It was cold as they neared the river and found out the Germans had been turned back. Asked who sent them, they replied, "General Simpson [Annotator's Note: US Army General William Hood Simpson] with the 9th Army." The men of the 131st returned to their weapons but the Germans were not flying much during the winter. When the German planes came back, they swooped down and fired toward Bertino, narrowly missing him. Three planes were shot down by another battery. Bertino was a PFC [Annotator's Note: Private First Class] at the time. He was later promoted to corporal. After departing Maastricht, Holland in March 1945, they crossed into Germany at the Rhine River going over the same bridge as Patton [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.]. Bertino checked for frogmen on both sides of the pontoon bridge. The 131st set up positions nearby. They had many German prisoners to oversee as the enemy surrendered more and more. On Christmas Day 1944 in Maastricht, Holland, one of Hitler's [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] flying bombs flew over. The V-1 [Annotator's Note: V-1 pulse jet flying bomb, German name: Vengeance Weapon 1; Allied names: buzz bomb, doodlebug] and V-2 [Annotator's Note: German Vergeltungswaffe 2, or Retribution Weapon 2, ballistic missile] bombs were too fast to shoot down with the guns the 131st manned. There was a near miss after the engines shut-off. Bertino was showered by dirt. After the Rhine River, the 131st advanced on Rheinburg, Germany. Bertino went into a bitters [Annotator's Note: liquor additive] plant with huge burlap sacks. He destroyed some of them. That was the end of the war and Bertino is a lucky guy. He went on to Czechoslovakia and awaited sufficient points [Annotator's Note: a point system was devised based on several factors that determined when American servicemen serving overseas could return home] to return home. Each man had a barrel of beer in front of his tent. They had made it in Pilsen, Czechoslovakia [Annotator's Note: now Plzeň, Czech Republic]. He attended a USO [Annotator's Note: United Service Organizations] show with Hollywood stars Jack Benny [Annotator's Note: born Benjamin Kubelksy, American entertainer] and Ingrid Bergman [Annotator's Note: Ingrid Bergman, Swedish actress]. If he had taken the truck to a swimming hole which was the alternate entertainment offered, he might have died. The truck went down over a mountain and crashed. The wreck killed and injured many of the D Battery men aboard. They survived the war but not the truck accident.

Donald W. Bertino arrived at Utah Beach [Annotator's Note: Utah Beach was one of the two American landing beaches in Normandy, France; Bertino went ashore on 3 August 1944]. The beach had much of the invasion [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944] debris still on it. The engineers ultimately did a good job of clearing the beaches. Some of the German pillboxes [Annotator's Note: type of blockhouse, or concrete, reinforced, dug-in guard post, normally equipped with slits for firing guns] remain for visitors to see today. The first combat was not until the Falaise Gap [Annotator's Note: Falaise Pocket or Battle of the Falaise Pocket or Falaise-Argentan; Battle of Normandy, 12 to 21 August 1944]. The action occurred so quickly that the outfit [Annotator's Note: Battery D, 131st Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion] did not have time to complete setting up its position. It had to open fire immediately. After the action, the gun crews had to saddle up for movement of their equipment. Bertino liked to ride on the outside of the vehicles so that he could get next to an exhaust pipe and stay warm and heat up his rations. He is constructing a scale model of what his gun position would have looked like with sandbags and all. He wanted to visit the Museum [Annotator's Note: the interview is conducted at The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana] and would not miss the trip even though he had been ill. He had visited the museum previously after stopping beforehand at Fort Benning [Annotator's Note: Fort Benning, Georgia] and Panama City, Florida. He picked up a 90mm [Annotator's Note: 90mm antiaircraft gun] there. He has used painted golf tees to simulate shells for his scale model of his gun position. During the war, Bertino's role was fuse setter on the platform of his antiaircraft gun. The director provided the information to the gun crew on fuse setting, azimuth and elevation for aiming and setting the weapon for firing. When all the conditions were proper, the gunner would fire the weapon at will. Bertino enjoys discussing his scale model of his gun position. The actual pit for his gun was deep enough to sleep but not stand up. There was enough room for half the 12 man crew to sleep in the position. If you were on duty, you were out of the pit. Off duty men were in the pit asleep. He trained at Fort Bliss [Annotator's Note: in El Paso, Texas] to stay alive. During wartime it was kill or be killed.

After World War 2, Donald W. Bertino returned home as a PFC [Annotator's Note: Private First Class] and joined the Army Reserve for three more years. Afterward, he joined the Pennsylvania National Guard and was called up for Korea [Annotator's Note: Korean War, 25 June 1950 to 27 July 1953] in 1950. He was wearing Air Force stripes as a corporal but then was put back into the Army stripes as a PFC. His Guard unit loaded equipment and went all the way to Fort Leonard Wood [Annotator's Note: near Waynesville, Missouri]. The government had authorized farmers to load grain into the barracks. The grain had gotten wet and swollen up. Rats were running when Bertino and his outfit had to clean the barracks. Bertino also operated heavy equipment to pour a runway. Bertino was a staff sergeant. His men were sent to the Norfolk Navy Yard [Annotator's Note: in Portsmouth, Virginia] for amphibious training. All that happened in six weeks. He built barracks and mess halls while the government was selling them for rental units. During this period, Bertino used his bricklaying skills. He was given a promotion to Sergeant First Class because of his work. The cost of living was much less in those years and Bertino was comfortable with his rank and its pay. After his 30 months were up, Bertino left the Army.

Donald W. Bertino fired his 90mm [Annotator's Note: 90mm antiaircraft gun] first in Dinant, Belgium. It was a hurry up job to set up the piece. The village people did not want the weapon set up close to them. Bertino's outfit [Annotator's Note: Battery D, 131st Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion] shot a P-38 [Annotator's Note: Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighter aircraft] down because he failed to throw the right color flare out. The crew opened up and the plane was hit and forced to land. The pilot owned his error for not using the flare properly. A temporary runway was prepared, and the plane flew away never to be seen again. Patton [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.] and Montgomery [Annotator's Note: British Field Marshal Sir Bernard Law Montgomery] disliked each other during the war. Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] did not try to land in England as close as he was at Calais [Annotator's Note: Calais, France] across from Dover [Annotator's Note: Dover, England]. Bertino saw both Patton and Ike [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower, Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force; 34th President of the United States] while serving in Europe. Eisenhower made sure an enlisted man had proper boots instead of them staying at the quartermaster's warehouse. Bertino's company commander did not do the same for him. The worst place for Bertino during the war was Holland and Belgium during the Battle of the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945]. The weather was foggy, and supplies could not be brought in for them. Ike told Patton to move his tanks to the battle. Patton would have made it to Berlin [Annotator's Note: Berlin, Germany] had it not been for the Yalta Conference [Annotator's Note: Yalta Conference, or Crimea Conference, code-named Argonaut, meeting of heads of governments of United States, United Kingdom, and Soviet Union, 4 to 11 February 1945]. Bertino made it to Munich [Annotator's Note: Munich, Germany] while the 82nd [Annotator's Note: 82nd Airborne Division] liberated Berchtesgaden [Annotator's Note: Berchtesgaden, Germany]. Bertino made it to Berchtesgaden because his battalion had a band and could provide entertainment for the officers in the fancy hotel there. The band played popular music just like Kay Kyser [Annotator's Note: James Kern Kyser, American bandleader and radio personality] and Glenn Miller [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces Major Alton Glenn Miller, American musician and big band leader]. That was how he got to Hitler's home. The home had been bombed out at the end of the war. There was an elevator that brought passengers up to the level of the destroyed home from a lower level. When Ike found a sign there saying the elevator was for officers only, he kicked the sign down. He told anyone there that enlisted men won the war. Bertino was able to ride the elevator up after that. [Annotator's Note: Bertino smiles broadly.] Bertino was at Berchtesgaden for six months. Four years after the war, Bertino returned to Utah Beach [Annotator's Note: Utah Beach was one of the two American landing beaches in Normandy, France] and Pointe du Hoc [Annotator's Note: La Pointe du Hoc, promontory in Normandy, France] with his son who was in the Air Force and stationed in England.

Donald W. Bertino came home through Camp Philip Morris [Annotator's Note: one of the transit and rehabilitation camps in France named after popular cigarette brands; Camp Philip Morris was in Gainneville, France], one of the transition camps named for cigarettes. He left Germany by train during very cold weather. The men had to slide down the hill after tossing their barracks bags down beforehand. They boarded a 40 and eight car [Annotator's Note: 40 and eight refers European railroad boxcars which could accommodate 40 standing men or eight standing horses]. The car could carry 40 men or eight horses. Straw was on the floor and a five gallon bucket was used as the latrine. Each station they stopped at provided them with food. He stayed in Camp Phillip Morris for ten days and then voyaged home. Shrimp was provided for a meal. He was provided with a nice porterhouse steak at Camp Kilmer [Annotator's Note: Camp Kilmer, New Jersey]. The Army treated Bertino well. With his 78 points [Annotator's Note: a point system was devised based on several factors that determined when American servicemen serving overseas could return home], he had to wait a year before going home. He was glad to get home and get out of the Army. He got a job along with 52 weeks of added transition pay from the government. His work was hard, but he was paid well for the time. His work was not steady so he asked his father to help him with a job in the coal mines if he would not be loading coal. Instead, he would be a bricklayer like his father who had done it all his life. Bertino's work ethic was noticed, and he was promoted. He was later drafted for the Korean War [Annotator's Note: Korean War, 25 June 1950 to 27 July 1953] but he did not have to leave the country. He worked at Camp Leonard Wood [Annotator's Note: now Fort Leonard Wood in Pulaski County, Missouri] and ran a bulldozer. He made rank and was discharged. His family has a history of military service. Some wanted to make the service a career and others did not. His unit [Annotator's Note: Battery D, 131st Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion] officially shot down 11 German aircraft. Returning home was difficult with the seasickness others suffered in the six high bunks. Bertino would sleep in the passageway. If Bertino had stayed in the military, he could have gotten a good pension like his sons have. Bertino was nearby when Patton [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.] died. He saw the General's Cadillac car being pushed away. He was a son-of-a-bitch but a good soldier. The Germans despised him and the English and Montgomery [Annotator's Note: British Field Marshal Sir Bernard Law Montgomery] hated him. He made a lot of mistakes, but he was a very capable leader. Bertino met him twice at a distance and liked him. Patton, Ike [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower, Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force; 34th President of the United States] and all the generals are now dead. Bertino now volunteers under a general at the 82nd Airborne Museum [Annotator's Note: 82nd Airborne Division War Memorial Museum, Fort Bragg, North Carolina]. He enjoys his time there and has made some good friends. [Annotator's Note: Bertino discusses several museum personnel he works with at the museum.] Bertino participates as a World War 2 veteran.