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Just over 76 years after kamikaze pilots nearly sank the USS Bunker Hill, the aircraft carrier he was serving on, Frank Petriello was feted Thursday in his adopted hometown of Clifton.
Petriello, who turned 100 in March, represents the fewer than 9,000 living New Jersey World War II veterans, members of what journalist Tom Brokaw dubbed The Greatest Generation. In all, 16 million Americans served in the armed forces in World War II, and today there are only a few hundred thousand left.
Saluting Petriello on Thursday were U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr., Passaic County Commissioner Terry Duffy and Sheriff Richard Berdnick.