Youth
William Guarnere was born in South Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the youngest of 10 children, to Joseph "Joe" and Augusta Guarnere, who were of Italian origin. He joined the Citizens Military Training Camp (CMTC) program during the Great Depression. Guarnere's mother told the Government her son was 17 while he was, in fact, only 15. He spent three summers in the CMTC, which took four years to complete. The plan was: upon completing his training, he would become an officer in the United States Army. Unfortunately, after his third year the program was canceled due to the pending war in Europe.
After the attack on Pearl Harbor and six months before graduation, Guarnere left South Philadelphia High School and went to work for Baldwin Locomotive Works, making Sherman tanks for the Army. This greatly upset his mother because none of the other children had graduated from high school. In response, Guarnere switched to the night shift and returned to school, earning his diploma in 1941. Because of his job he had an exemption from military service, but did not use it.
On August 31, 1942 in his hometown, Guarnere enlisted in the paratroops and started training at Camp Toccoa, Georgia.
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Famous quotes containing the word youth:
“Rebellious hell,
If thou canst mutine in a matron’s bones,
To flaming youth let virtue be as wax
And melt in her own fire.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“Meantime the education of the general mind never stops. The reveries of the true and simple are prophetic. What the tender poetic youth dreams, and prays, and paints today, but shuns the ridicule of saying aloud, shall presently be the resolutions of public bodies, then shall be carried as grievance and bill of rights through conflict and war, and then shall be triumphant law and establishment for a hundred years, until it gives place, in turn, to new prayers and pictures.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“We live in an age when to be young and to be indifferent can be no longer synonymous. We must prepare for the coming hour. The claims of the Future are represented by suffering millions; and the Youth of a Nation are the trustees of Posterity.”
—Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881)