[ back ]
WWII veteran honored
(by Megan Burrow - June 04, 2008)
 |
|
Staff photo by Megan Burrow
World War II veteran Nick Cosentino served as the Grand Marshal of Westwood’s 2008 Memorial Day Parade.
|
Like many members of the “greatest generation,” Nick Cosentino doesn’t like to boast. The 87-year-old World War II veteran was awarded several battle stars and medals for his service in the Navy, but most of the time he would rather talk about something else.
When Cosentino first learned he was chosen as the 2008 Grand Marshal for the borough’s Memorial Day Parade, he declined the honor.
“Physically I felt I couldn’t handle it,” Cosentino explained. He suffers from diabetes, which affects his ability to walk, and he knew getting up the stairs to the bandstand would be a struggle. Eventually, after much convincing from the Veterans Council and close friends, Cosentino agreed. “They twisted my arm,” he laughed. “It’s a dirty job, but somebody had to do it.”
Although it was unexpected, Cosentino said he was “very appreciative of the honor.” In keeping with his humble nature, Cosentino focused his remarks that day not on his own wartime achievements, but instead on the soldiers currently fighting overseas in Iraq.
“After 4,000 killed in action, thousands wounded in action, the time has come to start bringing our brave troops home – not next month, not next year, but now!” he exclaimed to the spectators gathered at the bandstand.
Although Cosentino emphasized he did not want to become embroiled in political controversy, he felt the need to share his personal opinion.
Several of his nephews and his grandson Anthony are currently serving in the military and he worries every time they have to go back to Iraq.
“It’s the feeling of many Americans,” he said. In his speech, he proposed a solution to the war – divide the country into three separate states, one for the Kurds, one for the Sunnis and one for the Shiites, and allow each group to govern themselves.
“These people have been killing each other for 1,000 years. It happened successfully in Russia, Korea, and it worked in Yugoslavia. Here we are still fighting a war in six years later. Billions of dollars are being spent and we keep sending more troops.”
Stephen Gaunt, the chairman of the Veterans Council said that although he personally disagreed with Cosentino’s remarks, the veteran had every right to voice his opinion. Gaunt, who will soon be leaving for his third tour in Iraq, explained, “That’s what we’re fighting for, for people to be able to say what’s on their minds.”
Now a resident of Westwood House, Cosentino acts as president of the tenants association at the senior living facility, and is an active member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars serving as vice commander of Ralph W. Lester VFW Post 130.
Cosentino said that his experiences in the Navy had colored his views of war. “I’m a peace lover. When you see your shipmates getting killed and you see young men and young women getting killed, and the strain on the family, the heartbreak of being told that you just lost a member of your family, it affects you.”
At age 23, Cosentino was drafted into the Naval Reserves. Two of his brothers were already serving in the Army and his younger brother was to eventually follow him and join the Navy. The family received special commendations from John Forrestal, then the secretary of the Navy, for their sacrifice during the war.
Cosentino said he had never been on a ship in his life until he boarded the U.S.S. Cowanesque, a fleet oilier. He spent 15 months on the ship, supporting the invasions of Iwo Jima, Luzon, and
Okinawa in the Pacific.
Initially, Cosentino served as a Petty Officer third class, acting as captain of a 20-millimeter gun crew and protecting the ship from attack. Eventually he moved up the ranks to Petty Officer second class, where he stood on the bridge of the ship with the captain relaying messages to the engine room, governing the ship’s speed.
Often, the bridge would be one of the most dangerous places on the ship; it was a favorite target of kamikaze pilots because it is where the captain would stand.
Most of the time, Cosentino says life aboard the ship was just another job. He worked as a yeoman most of the time in the executive office performing administrative duties. “You had your daily routine, except when you were called to your battle station when the enemy was sighted on the radar.”
Sometimes though, if the soldiers got repeated calls to General Quarters throughout the night, they would sleep on a cot in the office, or out on the deck using their life jackets as pillows if it was a warm evening.
The ship docked in San Pedro Bay, Philippines on Jan. 1, 1945. The next day, six Japanese bombers attacked the ship. Two planes were shot down, but a kamikaze crashed into the ship’s port side, spreading burning gasoline across the deck. An unexploded bomb had fallen out of the plane landing on the ship, but somebody quickly spotted it and threw it overboard.
The attack left two soldiers dead and two others wounded, but it could have been much worse. Cosentino says he still has several pieces of the wreckage as a souvenir of the attack – one of the scariest moments of his life.
“If you’re not afraid in that situation you’re not human,” he said. “The good lord was looking out for us. I wouldn’t be talking to you today and I wouldn’t have had my four children and my seven grandchildren.”
On Christmas Eve, 1945, Cosentino was discharged from the Navy and resumed civilian life, retiring in 1981 as a senior account executive for CONRAIL.
Reflecting on his 15 months aboard the U.S.S. Cowanesque, Cosentino remarked, “It was a great adventure, but something I wouldn’t want to go through again.”
Megan Burrow's e-mail address is burrow@northjersey.com.
[ back ]
