Robert “Al” Persichitti of Fairport, New York, a U.S. Navy WWII veteran fell ill while enroute to Normandy, France for D-Day ceremonies has died in Germany.  Mr. Persichitti fell ill while on board a flight that was taking veterans from all over the United States to Normandy, France.  The flight landed in Germany where Mr. Persichitti was taken to a local hospital where he later died.  Rev. William Leone, who was Mr. Persichitti’s longtime priest and friend said that Mr. Persichitti was 102.

“He’s been to most of the World War II remembrances down in Washington and Louisiana, and he wanted to get to the D-Day remembrance ceremony, too,” Leone, pastor of the Church of Saint Jerome in East Rochester, where Persichitti attended Mass every week, said by phone. “But the Lord took him in Germany. He was on his way to France, but he didn’t make it.”

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