Pete Domenici: “My father came to the United States in 1908 as a 12-year-old immigrant from Italy. I don't think many of you know that…”

“My father came to the United States in 1908 as a 12-year-old immigrant from Italy. I don't think many of you know that in the First World War, immigrants, noncitizens, were drafted. My father was in little Albuquerque in business, 27 years old, couldn't write English, couldn't speak English too well, and he got a draft notice. Sure enough, 3 months later he went off to war, the First World War. Another thing that is most interesting is that Armistice Day was this day, November 11; but it was also my dad's birthday. So he was a young American soldier, unable to speak very much English. He was sufficiently uncertain of his language that when he was up for promotion he didn't want to be promoted because he was afraid he couldn't drill the soldiers; he would sound funny because he had a big accent. Nonetheless, he did move up and whatever he was entitled to he got. He remembered vividly November 11, Armistice Day--and one man in particular. I think all our veterans have a memory of some leader. His memory was of his captain, the captain of his Corps of Engineers which was building pontoon bridges and the like. The reason he remembered him was because this man told his men: Armistice is in the air.”