Spirit of America: Battle of the Bulge Hero Is Still Swing Dancing at 104

On the Fourth of July this year, take a moment to remember the great Americans who have served our country.

One of them is Joe Pietroforte, 104, a war hero known as “Bazooka Joe,” an amazing man with an incredible memory.

Having lived over a century, he’s seen the world change from telegraph to text messages, from Morse Code to QR codes. Upon our meeting, he handed me a business card with the QR code of a 100-minute video interview conducted when he was a mere 90 — a sign of a sharp mind keeping up with the times. 

Joe was born near Bari in Italy in 1920. He arrived at Ellis Island when he was a baby and moved to Philadelphia, where he grew up in a musical household with seven brothers and a sister. Three of his brothers are still alive, ranging in age from 89 to 99 years old.

In 1945, working in a local hospital and still not yet an American citizen, Joe was drafted into the army as a rifleman. He was assigned to the 1st Infantry Division and arrived in France in September 1944.

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Later that year, a Belgian woman gave him a rosary that had belonged to her son, who had been executed by the Nazis. Joe believes to this day that the rosary ensured his survival.

Joe was transferred to Gen. George Patton’s 5th Infantry Division and fought in the Battle of the Bulge in the Ardennes region between Belgium and Luxembourg. It was to be the bloodiest battle for American forces in World War II, fought in freezing conditions. “If you didn’t move you would die,” he told AARP Experience Counts. “You’re better off taking a chance moving.”

Joe later took out an enemy Panther tank with his bazooka from 250 feet away, saving his unit from being machine-gunned, and then crawled across an open field to summon help. He received the Silver Star for those actions and was also awarded a Bronze Star and the Combat Infantryman Badge before retiring as a sergeant.

After the war, Joe married Dorothy, who was to be his wife for 57 years. They moved to the San Fernando Valley in California and began a family. They had one son, now 69, and one granddaughter. Joe has been a widow for the last 15 years.

After spending a few hours with Joe, one recognizes unique storytelling abilities, an incredible memory and a joyful outlook on a long life which he attributes to pasta with marinara sauce, good genes and the following values:

The benefit of hard work and family

Nothing is more important than family and hard work. As a young boy, Joe sold pretzels and snow cones throughout his neighborhood. 

After the war he managed drive-in theaters in the San Fernando Valley and from there went on to film distribution and production. This work led him to Greece, where he lived with his family for three years.

He learned to speak fluent Greek, to go along with his Italian, Polish, French, German and Spanish — all useful as he traveled all over the world to film festivals. After retiring, he became chaplain for American Foreign Legion Van Nuys Post 193.