John Galione

Bristolian’s discovery of missiles changed America’s war-time strategy in Germany.

By Tim Chicirda, BucksLocalNews.com


“The Journey of Private Galione” is not only an incredible forthcoming story about a Bristol veteran, but it is the name of a book that chronicles the military accomplishments of the author's father.

Mary Nahas, a registered nurse and 1975 Bristol High alum, has been on a mission to get her father's story told, despite his lifelong humble nature.

“My father has died and I want to finally honor him for saving the people and bringing the weapons here to America,” said Nahas.

Specifically, Nahas is referencing her father's heroics in April of 1945.

In an excerpt from the description from Nahas' book, we learn that “after walking over a hundred miles to search for the prisoners of labor camps, an exhausted Private Galione found a secret tunnel, a train car filled with corpses, a German guard shooting at him, and prisoners praying for rescue behind a locked gate.”

According to Nahas, America's objective at the time, was solely to eliminate enemy opposition, not to search for camps. But, Galione's discovery of Mittelbau Dora and Nordhausen Concentration Camps and the German creation of ballistic missiles led to a change in approach.
Now, the main American objective was to search for and seize missiles.

“Private Galione's discovery saved the prisoners of Dora-Nordhausen and related camps, and changed the future of the United States and the world,” writes Nahas.

*****
John Galione was born January 25, 1919, in the famous haunted Long Island farmhouse that Douglas Fairbanks Sr. later bought.

John and several siblings moved to Pennsylvania's King's Farm, now known as Penn Warner Club.

Galione was at “Fields’ Dance Hall” on Wood Street, currently the Dragon Moon Martial Arts Association, when he met his wife, Viola.

Viola, formerly called Iole, tripped down the steps into John Galione’s arms.

After the couple married, they moved to Bristol and had a daughter. John then went to war. Upon returning, John and Viola had two more daughters.

John was not only a war hero, but an inventor, as well. He invented and designed a pollution system that kept five 3M Manufacturing facilities from shutting down. He also invented a harmonica holster which enabled him to play guitar and two harmonicas simultaneously.

But despite all of this, arguably Galione's greatest accomplishment was taking care of his beloved wife during a 10-year run of Alzheimer's disease.

John Galione passed away on June 23, 1999, at the age of 80, following a three-year fight with congestive heart failure. He received a military burial at Sunset Memorial Park in Feasterville, PA., where he rests beside his Viola.

*****
Two years ago Nahas had the opportunity to meet Charlie Lang, currently a New Jersey resident, one of the Jewish survivors of Mittelbau Dora's Nordhausen Death Camp.

Mary explained, “He was one of the Romananian Jews thrown in the camps when he was a young teenager. He was first in Auschwitz, then Buchenwald, and then inside Nordhausen Death Camp, the restricted zone of Mittelbau Dora. It's the place where they dumped the slave laborers who had become too weak to manufacture the missiles and left them there to die a slow death from starvation and disease.”

And Lang is not the only survivor who has many good things to say about John Galione. Michel Depierre, a Dora Survivor, echoed his appreciation for Galione:

“In a few more days I would have died. John Galione and his fellow soldiers saved my life!”