Bruce F. Anello

Date of Birth: 08/24/1947
Neighborhood: Nicetown
High School: Milton Hershey School
Street: W.Willard St.
Branch of Service: Army
Rank: SGT
Date of Casualty: 05/31/1968
Province of Casualty: Quang Nam
Philadelphia Memorial Panel: Panel 1
Panel Row: 17

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"Buddy" Anello was a combat-seasoned team leader with Company D of the 1st Battalion, 6th Infantry, 1st Infantry Division, but he was a poet first and foremost. The 1965 graduate of Milton Hershey School in Hershey, Pa, was interested in wrestling and music, and after graduation worked for a year with Philadelphia Electric Co. Anello was drafted in October 1966 and sent to Vietnam. He wrote home often, and his bitter-sweet poetry and prose reflected his deep feelings about the war. He wrote a long poem during the 1967 Christmas truce which included the lines: I gaze on glistening spider webs that decorate my tree. Arid instead of baits and blinking lights, scars from bombs are what I see. Audio went on R&R in Taiwan in early 1968, later confiding to a friend about three identical dreams be experienced during the three nights he vacationed there. "In the dream, Buddy said, he was walking up a long hill," the friend recalled. "There was thick elephant grass. "I was trying to walk out of Vietnam,' Buddy said. "I kept walking and I couldn't get out. I knew I'd be in Vietnam the rest of my life.' "The 20- year-old sergeant died in firelight with a Viet Cong unit near Hol An, Quang Nam Province, on May 31, 1968. He was posthumously awarded the Silver Star. Survivors include his father and three brothers.

Philadelphia Vietnam Veterans Memorial