My Family’s Place in American History – 2026

As with all of us, one of our ancestors came to this country to look for a better life.  In my case, my grandfather came from Italy.  Ciriaco Iannarone came, looked around, and convinced his 6 brothers to come to the US.  That was in 1903 and he was 23 years old. They formed a construction company and settled in northern New Jersey.  One brother became a Catholic priest.  Anglicized to Charles Jannarone, (Ciriaco actually means Lord, and Italians have no J in their alphabet but write their script capital I like an English J), he married another Italian immigrant, Concetta Caruso, who came as a 10-year-old in 1900.  Both had been born in Ariano-Irpino, and lived in the tiny village of Medellin, in a very poor section of the country.  Married in Newark, NJ, in 1909, they settled in nearby Nutley.  They had three children by the time of the Spanish Flu in 1918, which took my grandfather’s life.  He had been in this country for only fifteen years.

     Widowed Concetta, called Connie, moved in with her three kids to her brother-in-law’s Rafaele (Ralph) and his wife’s house around the corner.  She worked as a seamstress and ran a dry goods store out of the house.  Her first son, Joseph, was dropped by a mid-wife at birth and was never able to work.

 My dad, John Jannarone, first worked as a waterboy for the construction company.  Esther married another Italian much later on.

     My dad was valedictorian of his high school class, Student Council President, and played football, basketball and baseball.  He applied four times to West Point.  But classes were smaller then, and the family had no money or political pull, so he was rebuffed by his local Congressman.  But that man was powerful, and on the fourth try he told a new Congressman from Delaware to nominate my dad, even though he wasn’t in his district.  He did.  That man served only one term.

     My dad graduated from West Point first in his class in General Order of Merit.  He was a Company Commander, Chairman of the Cadet Honor Committee, and Battalion Commander of the Catholic Squad.  He was asked by West Point to apply for a Rhodes Scholarship, but he was interested in civil engineering.  He was number one on the list of officers that General Groves, the head of the Manhattan Project, the Atomic Bomb project, asked the Army G-1 to have assigned to his headquarters when the war was over.  After that assignment, he taught physics at West Point, got a master’s degree in civil engineering, and ultimately went back to West Point as a full professor and ultimately the Dean of the Academic Board.

Cadet John Jannarone

     As a third generation American, I was taught the value of hard work, perseverance, thrift, honesty, and fear of the Lord.  My parents had weathered the Great Depression, dad paid much of his mother’s and brother’s bills and now were getting the thanks of the country for their selfless service, but not much pay.  All three of my father’s sons served in the military.  Jack, a USMA graduate, served more than twenty years in the Air Force.  I served five years active and twenty-eight more in the reserves.  Dick served over six years in the Army, and decades in foreign military sales of US aircraft. Dick and my sister, Dotty were high school valedictorians. (Who, What or Where? – 1972 – The Days Forward) My sister, Nancy, saved a young girl from drowning in Delafield Pond at West Point and is in the College Swimming Coaches all of Fame. (To see a photo of this special family go to: Combat Related Special Compensation – 2021 – The Days Forward)

     I was commissioned in the Corps of Engineers upon graduation from West Point and served in Vietnam with the Engineer Battalion of the 25th Infantry Division.  I ultimately served in the Army Reserve, assigned to an Engineer District and later at a Division.  Those have only a few officers and are mostly civilian workers.  Later, I was also one of those civilian workers, working on military construction projects at West Point.

     I was also attached to the Military Academy Liaison Officer program.  Formed because a recent class at West Point was not filled, and largely unpaid, reservists were tasked with generating interest in applying and guiding candidates through the admissions process.  I’m happy to say that the area where I was assigned, around Rochester, NY, generated at least four, and sometimes as many as nine admitted candidates each year.  Most graduated, and I think one reason was that I made sure they understood what they were getting themselves into as a cadet.

     After I retired, I taught religious education for the local parish for nine years before I moved from the West Point area to Pennsylvania.  I have been a lector since cadet days, and I am also now an Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion, bringing Eucharist to shut-ins at the Retirement Community where I live.

     I’m happy that my grandfather decided to come to America, and that his son and grandchildren made good use of the opportunities available.