| TSGT. Veto C. Fuller, I Company 513th PIR |
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The story was shared with us by the daughter of Veto Fuller, Mrs. Roy Carroll My Dad's name was Veto C. Fuller. He began his military service in the US Navy, assigned to the USS Mississippi. Later assigned to the USS Oklahoma and was cooking breakfast when Japanese attacked at Pearl Harbor. Although medically discharged from the Navy, he enlisted in the Army and volunteered for the paratroopers. He was assigned as TSgt to I company in the 513th. --- Veto Fuller, 67, died as a result of a heart attack at his office in Haleyville Al. on Friday, September 10th. Only five days earlier he had attended the annual Labor Day reunion of his beloved I Company 513th PIR, in Lancaster, Pa. Veto's military service began with the US Navy. He was at Pearl Harbor when the Japanese struck on December 7th, 1941. He was wounded in the attack but nevertheless he commandeered a truck and brought many wounded comrades to the hospital before he too was admitted. Later he enlisted in the Army, although he had been medically discharged from the Navy, volunteered for the paratroopers, and was assigned as T/Sgt. (cook) in the 513th. There are those among us who will never forget that cold, foggy morning in the Bulge when, just at daylight, we saw a US Army truck, headlights blacked to a slit, horn blowing, moving towards us troughs the snow and pines. There was big, amiable, smiling Sergeant Veto Fuller, coming troughs for his men with hot pancakes, bacon, syrup and hot coffee. And butter, real butter…. “Gotta get some hot food into my beat up paratroopers”, he said. „ Can't fight on cold and empty stomach“ Where he found the truck, the food, and the three man crew of helpers was known only to Veto. „ I acquired everything“, he replied when asked. We shall miss this gentle man and gentleman, who had a way of making seemingly small, generous gestures that always became somehow important to the recipients. Written by Wayne „Woody“ Hyde, a friend and buddy of Veto's from I Company 513th PIR.
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