Armando "Chick" Galella - U.S. Army 1940-45

Armando "Chick" Galella - U.S. Army 1940-45

World War II vet­eran, Pearl Har­bor sur­vivor and life­time North Tar­ry­town/​Sleepy Hol­low res­i­dent Ar­mando “Chick” Galella died yes­ter­day, Sept. 29, 2021, at Phelps Memo­r­ial Hos­pi­tal due to com­pli­ca­tions of COVID-19. He was 100.

Galella was born in 1921. He en­listed in the army and was as­signed to the 443rd Sig­nal Corps at Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii. He was 20 years old when the Japan­ese bombed Pearl Har­bor. Chick went on to earn the rank of Battalion Sgt. Major and served 5 years in the Pacific during WWII. Chick was awarded the Bronze Star for serving at the Battle of Okinawa.

Shortly af­ter the war, he mar­ried Leda DiFe­lice, who pre­ceded him in death in 2015 af­ter 68 years of mar­riage. Sur­viv­ing Galella are two sons, grand­chil­dren and great-grand­chil­dren. Galella served as North Tar­ry­town vil­lage trustee, deputy mayor and held var­i­ous lead­er­ship roles in the now Sleepy Hol­low Vol­un­teer Fire De­part­ment. His mem­bership in the Pocan­tico Hook & Lad­der Com­pany dates back to 1948.

Galella con­tin­u­ously gave back to his com­mu­nity. At his 100th birth­day cel­e­bra­tion, he broke ground for a statue hon­or­ing Gold Star Moth­ers at Sleepy Hol­low’s Ho­ran’s Land­ing Park. He raised the money for the statue to­gether with his son with the sup­port of the his­tor­i­cal so­ci­ety. (The park it­self is named af­ter his friend, fel­low res­i­dent John J. Ho­ran, who did­n’t make it home from the war.)

Copy of DVD interview of Pearl Harbor survivor Armando "Chick" Galella

Watch more

WWII, ArmySoldier Ridearmy, WWII, rip, Veteran, olderComment