Military honor guard to help rededicate hero father’s grave

REVERE – John P. Correggio never talked much about the war, about the steamy jungle, the constant fear and the few seconds he came as close to death as anyone can and still walk away.Correggio overran a Japanese fortification at Bougainville in the Solomon Islands in early 1944. The exploit earned him the Silver Star for gallantry and a local newspaper nicknamed him the “one man army.”His son and namesake does not recall that story. John R. Correggio said his dad shared few memories of his time in the Pacific and those stories detailed bouts of malaria, the experience of being crowded with thousands of men for weeks aboard a transport ship, and the hunger that drove him to chew on tree bark after his Army rations ran out.”He told me it was four years of hell,” Correggio said.The elder Correggio died in 1996 from liver cancer and his family did not have time to arrange a military burial. John Correggio plans to rededicate his father’s grave in Woodlawn Cemetery on May 24 with an honor guard and military tribute.The local City Councilor at Large praised Veterans Director Nicholas Bua for working with Everett officials to arrange the ceremony.”It means something, especially with Iraq and people getting killed left and right,” Correggio said.John P. Correggio grew up in Everett where he earned the nickname “The Swisher” for his prowess on the basketball court. He trained with fellow National Guard members activated for Army duty and shipped out for the Pacific in 1942.By 1944, Correggio was a 22-year-old veteran of jungle warfare who had survived several battles and lost 30 pounds in the tropical climate. By the time his unit landed in Bougainville early that year, the island was a killing ground for entrenched Japanese troops and Americans trying to dislodge them.Correggio’s company received orders to assault a Japanese gun position shelling American lines. Scouting ahead of the other GIs, Correggio spotted two U.S. Marines before realizing the pair were Japanese troops wearing the uniforms of dead Americans.”I shot one outright,” Correggio wrote in a 1946 letter to the War Department. “His pal started to run and I got him; others were nearby in foxholes; spotted (sic) 5 more Japs (one shaving) and without thinking I went into action and killed four with a M1 rifle; bayoneted the fifth who was attempting to get behind one of their heavy machine guns.”An Army general pinned the Silver Star on him. His son keeps it alongside two other medals his father earned.Correggio returned to Everett with plans to become a dentist but lingering malaria prompted him to discontinue his studies. He worked as a machinist and trained as tile layer before opening his own company.He spent his free time shooting baskets, cutting hair on weekends and hanging out at the Ocean View Ballroom where he met his wife Josephine.”She had on an orange dress and he went over to her,” his son recalled.The Correggios built the first house on Graves Road and John Correggio still lives there, preserving his father’s memories and recalling how his father’s only wish after leaving the Pacific was to own his own home.