Date of Birth: 08/24/1947
Neighborhood: Nicetown
High School: Milton Hershey School
Street: W.Willard St.
Branch of Service: Army
Rank: SGT
Date of Casualty: 05/31/1968
Province of Casualty: Quang Nam
Philadelphia Memorial Panel: Panel 1
Panel Row: 17
Click on the memorial panel below for a printable photo of the serviceman on this page.
"Buddy" Anello was a combat-seasoned team leader with Company D of the 1st Battalion, 6th Infantry, 1st Infantry Division, but he was a poet first and foremost. The 1965 graduate of Milton Hershey School in Hershey, Pa, was interested in wrestling and music, and after graduation worked for a year with Philadelphia Electric Co. Anello was drafted in October 1966 and sent to Vietnam. He wrote home often, and his bitter-sweet poetry and prose reflected his deep feelings about the war. He wrote a long poem during the 1967 Christmas truce which included the lines: I gaze on glistening spider webs that decorate my tree. Arid instead of baits and blinking lights, scars from bombs are what I see. Audio went on R&R in Taiwan in early 1968, later confiding to a friend about three identical dreams be experienced during the three nights he vacationed there. "In the dream, Buddy said, he was walking up a long hill," the friend recalled. "There was thick elephant grass. "I was trying to walk out of Vietnam,' Buddy said. "I kept walking and I couldn't get out. I knew I'd be in Vietnam the rest of my life.' "The 20- year-old sergeant died in firelight with a Viet Cong unit near Hol An, Quang Nam Province, on May 31, 1968. He was posthumously awarded the Silver Star. Survivors include his father and three brothers.