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Salvatore "Sal" Rinaldi of Inverness stands only five feet, five inches in height. However, his devoted service to our country and his fellow veterans distinguish him has a man tall in stature.
Born in 1923 at Greenwich, Connecticut, Rinaldi grew up in nearby Port Chester, New York. His education at Port Chester High School ended when he was drafted in December 1941 following Pearl Harbor.
Rinaldi began his Army service in January 1942 at Ft. Bragg, North Carolina. Trained as a field artilleryman, he was first assigned to the 551st Field Artillery and then to the 35th (Santa Fe) Infantry Division, which was comprised of units from the Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri National Guard.
Upon joining the division in November 1943, Rinaldi, was assigned to Cannon Company, 2nd Battalion, 134th Infantry Regiment and participated in the division's Tennessee maneuvers. Following the maneuvers, the division moved to Camp Butner, North Carolina in January 1944 to prepare for overseas deployment.
On May 11, 1944, almost three years after being ordered into federal service, the division sailed for England. Upon arrival in England, Rinaldi and his comrades continued to hone their combat skills until D-Day plus 30 when his regiment landed at Omaha Beach on July 5, 1944.
Omaha Beach began Rinaldi's five-campaign battlefield odyssey (Normandy, Northern France, Rhineland, Ardennes-Alsace, and Central Europe), which took him from the coast of France to the doorsteps of Berlin.
During the Normandy campaign, the 35th Division suffered over 2,400 casualties in its first eight days of combat. After the St Lo breakout, the division, as part of General George Patton's 3rd U.S. Army, participated in the "blitzkrieg" across Northern France with Rinaldi's regiment experiencing some of the war's toughest fighting.
On October 8, 1944, Rinaldi had his closest brush with death when he earned the Purple Heart. On that fateful day, as he and five comrades gathered to eat their rations, an enemy tank that had ventured forth from its well-concealed hiding place spotted Rinaldi and his comrades.
Seconds before the 88mm tank round impacted, Rinaldi bent down to hand a comrade a cup of coffee. At that precise moment, the round slammed near the group. Only Rinaldi was miraculously spared. His five comrades were killed instantly. Suffering temporary deafness, which resulted in a permanent hearing loss, and shrapnel wounds to the right leg, Rinaldi was evacuated to a field hospital for treatment and recovery.
Upon being returned to duty, Rinaldi resumed his battlefield odyssey as his regiment, epitomizing its proud motto of "All Hell Can't Stop Us", fought its way to Germany's Siegfried Line in the face of bitter German resistance and bitter cold from the worse weather in over a hundred years.
Poised to invade Germany, Hitler's Ardennes counteroffensive saw Rinaldi's division redirected to join in the Battle of the Bugle on December 27, 1944. Although at less than half strength, the men of the Santa Fe Division persevered against 20 below zero temperatures, deep snow and desperate German resistance to help break the back of Hitler's last gasp counteroffensive.
Following the Ardennes-Alsace campaign, Rinaldi's regiment battled across the Rhine River and into Germany's Ruhr Valley reaching the north bank of the Ruhr River on April 10, 1945. It was then ordered to move to the Elbe River and then to Hanover for mopping up operations and occupational duty.
Germany's unconditional surrender on May 9, 1945 marked the end of Rinaldi's battlefield odyssey. With the journey indelibly etched in his mind, Rinaldi still has the entrenching tool with which he dug scores of foxholes during his 335 days and 1,600 miles of endless combat across France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Holland, and Germany.
Shortly after his division's return from England aboard the Queen Mary in September 1945, Rinaldi was honorably discharged from the Army, the proud recipient of the Bronze Star, Purple Heart, Good Conduct Medal, the Combat Infantryman Badge and five campaign medals.
Returning to Port Chester, New York, he was employed with Arnold's Bakery for 30 years rising from carton maker to a supervisor of 20 employees. After retiring in 1982, he and his beloved wife of 47 years, Ada, moved to Summerville, South Carolina only to relocate to Inverness nine months later where they have resided for 22 years.
Devoted to serving his fellow veterans, Rinaldi is the Sergeant-at-Arms for Aaron A. Weaver Chapter 776 MOPH, a Honor Guard and Life Member of VFW Post 4337, a Honor Guard and Life Member of American Legion Post 77 and Life Member of Chapter 77 Disabled American Veterans.
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