W. Hempstead war hero honored in D.C.

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West Hempstead resident Alfred Magliano, 90, was a sergeant in the U.S. Army, only 18 years old and stationed in the South Pacific during World War II, when a Japanese submarine torpedoed his ship on Feb. 11, 1945.

Nearly half of the vessel, a tank landing ship carrying war vehicles, was blown off, and it sank in the waters in Mindanao in the Philippines, killing hundreds of people, Magliano recalled. The United States Navy Memorial website states that 166 soldiers and sailors died that day.

The ship broke in two, with the stern and the entire bridge sinking almost immediately, but the forward section — where Magliano was — managed to stay afloat.

While he could, he ran up to the top deck and saw wounded men there, as well as another ship astern — a submarine chaser — that was part of a convoy to protect his ship against the enemy.

The sub chaser pulled up to what was left of the tank lander in an effort to save those still alive. “Every time the ships touched, two or three guys would jump on the sub chaser,” Magliano recalled. “We had to get off there, so I helped several guys — they were wounded — get from the ship to the sub chaser.”

Magliano’s incredible story was recounted recently when he visited the national World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C., with the help of Honor Flight Long Island, a nonprofit that provides veterans with free trips to the nation’s capital to visit their memorials. Magliano’s nephew Anthony Magliano, was his designated guardian on the trip.

To honor the occasion, the organization gave Magliano a commemorative coin and photo book, which documented his war story and their trip to the war memorial. “I did my best to save some serviceman,” Magliano said in a written statement. “God was kind to me that day and I’m here to tell my story.”