Bio of Vito Tomasino
He was just a boy when the bombs rained down on Pearl Harbor pulling America into WWII.
As he watched the grim images of war flash before him in a darkened theater in Bellmore, L.I., he silently vowed to be in the next one.
When his high school friends questioned his decision to join the Marines and go to Korea,
he replied: “I don't want anyone else doing my dying for me.”
He joined the 1st Marine Division in Korea only weeks before the truce was signed--time enough to get “shot at and missed,” he would say. His war over, he then pursued a boyhood
dream of becoming a fighter pilot in the U.S. Air Force, flew two combat tours in Vietnam and earned two Distinguished Flying Crosses. When he wasn’t getting shot at he stood nuclear alert on bases surrounding the old Soviet Union to insure that mother Russia remained behind her "Iron Curtin."
When Muammar Gaddafi brought down the Senusi regime of King Idris, he was there, training the fighter pilots of the
Libyan Air Force; one of whom was killed on a night mission over Tripoli. He organized and led the Search and Rescue
effort to find Lt. Tera. Failing to find him, he then suggested to the Libyan Air Force Commander that Fahti be honored
as a hero of the revolution with the "Missing Man Formation” ceremony. Colonel Husumi liked the idea and obtained
Gaddafi's approval, but insisted, despite the obvious risk to himself, that Vito lead the flight or it would not be flown. It
is one of the many intriguing tales in his book, "Close Calls Revisited.”
Indeed, it was from a life lived during one the most tumultuous periods in recent times that inspired the author to record
his participation in those events while they were still fresh in his mind. Vito Tomasino started his writing career rather late in
life and has written three books, each in a different genre. Yet, each of them ring with the same authenticity…the same truth
that could only come from a man who “walked” in that history.
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Ezdy
