L Company of the 86th Mountain Infantry Regiment was activated at Camp Hale, Colorado on April 26, 1943. Gone were the days of needing three letters of recommendation to get into the mountain troops; by the spring of 1943, many recruits had merely to express an interest. Even so, Company L was comprised of dynamic young men from all over the world.
One of the first men assigned was S/Sgt. Edward Lisciandro. He’d grown up working in his Father’s shop as a cabinet-maker in Queens. In a division of well-educated men, he went into the army without graduating from high school. He saw an article about the ski troops, wrote a letter asking to join, and later joked about having written his own letter of recommendation. He had never skied before, but a comrade took him under his wing, and his meticulous nature and demanding standards made him stand out to his superiors. He was nicknamed “Lucky” after the similarity was noticed between his name and that of the famous mobster Lucky Luciano. Lucky and T/Sgt. Dillon Snell carried on a mostly friendly competition over which of them had the better platoon. When they went overseas, Ed Lisciandro had been in L Company longer than any other man in the outfit.
His mischievous streak continued even after the company was deployed to Italy. Sgt. Lisciandro related how he and others incorporated the gangs of children into fun at the expense of 1st Sgt. Bill Brown.
We would call out to the kids who were running all over the place, “Hey kids, what’s the color of shit?” and they’d all yell “Brown!” and we thought that was funny.
He also enjoyed telling of the time he and some of the men made a visit to the Leaning Tower of Pisa, and urinated from the top.
The company sustained 25% casualties during their first major engagement, and Lisciandro distinguished himself sufficiently that he was awarded a Bronze Star. The citation reads;
For meritorious achievement in action on 20 February 1945, near Monte Gorgolesco, Italy. During a company effort when enemy mortar, artillery, and sniper fire halted immediate progress, Staff Sergeant Lisciandro left a protected position to maneuver forward several hundred yards in the face of the most intense fire to aid and remove wounded comrades. Unmindful of his own safety, he repeated his daring mission several times until all of the wounded had been taken to safety. Staff Sergeant Lisciandro showed in his actions great courage and concern for the welfare of his men. His feat encouraged the entire platoon to continue to successful completion of their assigned mission.
In recalling his many assignments to lead dangerous patrols and hold exposed positions, he said that,
I thought Captain Bailey was trying to get me killed, because he was always sending me on these dangerous jobs and patrols. But see, when I go on patrol, I hand-pick the best men. I started to think, ‘he’s doing the same thing.’
Lisciandro described seeing one of his friends wounded during an intense action on April 19, 1945. Sgt. Lisciandro and Sgt. Ben Duke were running up a hill toward a fortified position manned by German infantry and panzers, when Duke suddenly went down with a nasty wound that severely mangled his right hand. Lisciandro didn’t stop running, and left Duke there to be helped by others. Duke was evacuated and never returned to the company.
As the German army retreated, Lisciandro was the first man of the 10th Mountain Division to enter the city of Verona.
“Lucky” Lisciandro’s luck ran out at the southern end of the town of Torbole on April 29, 1945. Pfc. Lloyd Fitch described the event.
While fighting our way into town, we crept alongside a four-foot-high cement wall. We were under heavy enemy fire and jumped over the wall to escape the bullets.
The sergeant and I were lying flat on the ground about ten feet from a large tree. Suddenly a German shell struck the base of the tree and exploded. The force of the blast lifted me up off my right elbow and slammed me back to the ground. I wasn’t injured, but the sergeant was blinded. He jumped up and began staggering around. Martinez grabbed him and pulled him out of the line of fire.
Sgt. Lisciandro was severely wounded by the blast. A large shell fragment passed through his right shoulder, and tiny shards of dirt and metal struck him in the face and embedded themselves in his eyes.
Ed Lisciandro spent time in various hospitals recovering from his wounds at Torbole, which culminated with the use of a powerful magnet to extract the shards of metal from his eyes. He returned home to Queens, New York, was married and had two children. Once when in the city, someone called out from behind him, “Lucky!” and he turned around astonished to see that it was Ben Duke, who he hadn’t seen since April 19, 1945. He left his Father’s cabinet business to go out on his own as an interior designer, then had a career working for the US Post Office. He became a Postmaster and served in that capacity for many years before he retired. He passed away on March 3, 2022 at the age of 97.
This blog is part of a larger body of research culminating in the publication of the book ‘Heroes in Good Company: L Company, 86th Regiment, 10th Mountain Division 1943-1945’ which is available in select bookstores and on amazon.
SOURCES:
Bob Carlson, Third Addendum to A History of L Company, 86th Mountain Infantry, Self-published Manuscript, 2003.
Edward A. Lisciandro, personal interview by author, October 26, 2019.
US Department of the Army, Headquarters 10th Mountain Division, 1945, Citation for Bronze Star Awarded to Edward A. Lisciandro, for Meritorious Achievement in Action on 20 February 1945, By command of Major General Hays, 10th Mountain Division Collection, Denver Public Library, Denver, CO.
A.B. Feuer, Packs On!: Memoirs of the 10th Mountain Division in World War II, (Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2006), 47.
