FORT DRUM, N.Y. (Nov. 4, 2021) -- Col. James Zacchino Jr., Fort Drum garrison commander, placed a wreath at the grave of Pvt. Rino Carlutti, the lone Italian soldier buried at the POW (Prisoner of War) Cemetery, during a ceremony Nov. 4.
Zacchino joined members of the Fort Drum Cultural Resources staff and other community members for the annual wreath-laying ceremony, which coincides with Italy’s National Unity Day and Armed Forces Day.
During the ceremony, Spc. Steven Vought, a bugler with the 10th Mountain Division Band, performed “Il Silenzio,” the Italian armed forces version of “Taps.”
Pvt. Rino Carlutti served in the Italian army during World War II and was captured in Tunisia. Hundreds of Italian and German prisoners of war (POWs) were transported to Pine Camp (now Fort Drum) between 1943 and 1944. Carlutti died at the age of 22 from injuries sustained from an automobile accident and was buried at the POW Cemetery.
Adjacent to Sheepfold Cemetery, the POW Cemetery is also the burial site for six German POWs. It is believed that the German and Italian graves were separated by some distance as the Germans refused to be buried alongside the Italian soldiers. At the time, Italy had already surrendered and the Germans had occupied Italy.
A second Italian POW, Renato Faccini, was disinterred from the cemetery and transported to Italy in August 1957, at his family’s expense.
In 1974, the Italian ambassador had unsuccessfully attempted to locate Carlutti’s relatives, in response to a request by Henry V. Cumoletti. Cumoletti served as an assistant clerk and stenographer at Pine Camp and was an interpreter for the Italian POWs. After the war, he served on a court reporter team at the first Nuremberg trials and later worked as a court reporter in the Watertown City Court. In his honor, Fort Drum official rededicated the post’s courtroom in Cumoletti’s name in 2016.