Henry Polichetti, a resident of Cranston, Rhode Island, USA, is celebrating his 110th birthday today, according to RINewsToday.
Henry Polichetti was born in the neighborhood of Federal Hill in the city of Providence, Rhode Island, on 3 July 1915, to Italian immigrant parents. He was one of five siblings.
After completing basic training at the Newport Naval Training Station, Henry joined the Naval Radio Operators School in Bedford Springs, Pennsylvania, where he served as an instructor. In December 1943, the Navy transferred him to the Direction Finder School in Casco Bay, Maine. There, he taught students how to use LORAN (Long Range Navigation) and radio direction-finding equipment. He also trained radio operators on the newly developed high-frequency (H/F) cathode ray direction finder—a device designed to detect U-boats by intercepting their sighting and position reports.
Although he frequently boarded ships to calibrate equipment and lead training exercises, Henry jokingly referred to himself as “the sailor who never went to sea.”
Following Germany’s surrender in 1945 and the end of anti-submarine warfare in the Atlantic, the Navy reassigned him to another instructional role at the LORAN School at the Pacific Fleet Training Center in Pearl Harbor. Eventually, after Japan’s surrender, Henry returned home to Rhode Island.
Upon returning, he married his longtime girlfriend Eleanor, whom he had met at age 16 through his sister. In 1946, they settled in Cranston.
LongeviQuest extends warm congratulations to Henry Polichetti on his 110th birthday.
