General Omar Bradley - a Moment in Time

The U.S. Army has had a huge influence on my life and who I am as a person. My father served for twenty-two years and had campaign ribbons for WWII, the Koren and Vietnam Conflicts. He was shot once in WWII and twice in Korea receiving three purple hearts. He was the motor pool Sergeant at Ft. Irwin, CA. when he received orders to go to Vietnam to oversee mechanics that worked on jeeps, tanks, two and a half ton trucks, etc. I joined the Army in 1975 and served at Ft. Carson CO.

One day my unit's commander asked for a volunteer to work at the post's live theater. I was brought up knowing that one should never volunteer for anything while in the Army. No one would take the offer and so I decided to go ahead and do it going against my upbringing. When I reported to the theater I was introduced to a short, Sicilian man named Vito Colletti. He asked me to call him Vic. Later I found out he was from an actual mafia family but didn't participate in the family business and wasn't proud of the fact. He instead got a degree in theatrical arts ended up working as a civil servant in the Army for his life's work. Vic was a great man and had a lot of friends in high places. This duty assignment was a very good one. I got to work in civilian clothes and didn't have to do any of the normal Army things.

I found out about Vic's connections one day when I was answering the theater phone and heard Barbara Walters on the other end. She asked to speak to Vito and I connected them. Come to find out they were very good friends. Vic never bragged about who he knew but you could tell he was a man with a lot of secret facets. He was very kind to me and I learned that if he liked you he would do anything in the world to help you. One time a critic gave one of the theater plays a bad review and Vito was so angry he threatened to have the critic's fingers cut off. The theater staff knew he wouldn't really do it but his hot, Sicilian, temper was definitely showing that day.

After working at the theater for over a year the staff got word that we would be having a very important visitor and we had to clean and polish the entire facility. Later we found out that the visitor was an old friend of Vito's named General Omar Bradley. We were all excited and prepared the place as well as we could. Vito laid out pastries, bagels, and brought in his Italian coffee maker. Finally the moment arrive and the General's staff car drove up with flags waving on the front bumpers and several escort cars.

The General was an extreme military man, spit and polish to the max. The staff was lined up for his reception and he came in moving at a fast, definite pace. Vic introduced each of us to the General and he in turned shook our hands. I told him it was an honor to meet him and his hand shake was firm and hard. You could tell this man was a cut above and had huge confidence. He would have made a hand shake from John Wayne seem like what you would expect from Peewee Herman compared to his. The General moved into the theater office and Vito shut the door behind them. He came out about 15 minutes later and left as abruptly as he entered. The convoy moved out quickly and that was the end of it.

Later in that year my assigned unit's First Sergeant decided my time at the theater was over and told me I had to return to the unit. I wanted to stay where I was for my remaining time in the Army and Vito told me if that is what I wanted he would see to it. My First Sergeant asked me to report to him for a meeting and I arrived at the unit and entered his office. He told me he did everything he could to force me to come back but couldn't make it happen. He said I must have some powerful friends on my side. Apparently he was told to drop the issue and let it go. I stayed at the theater until my time was up. I finally got to wear my uniform one last time when I checked out of the unit. I served three years active duty and three years inactive. General of the Army Omar Bradley died in 1981, the year I received my honorable discharge.