Francesco Domenico Chiarello

Infobox Military Person
name= Francesco Domenico Chiarello
born= birth date|1898|11|5
died = death date|2008|6|27


caption=
nickname=
placeofbirth= Italy
placeofdeath= Cirò Marina, Italy
allegiance= flagicon|Italy Italy
branch= Italian Army
serviceyears= 1918 – 1920, 1940
rank=
unit=
commands=
battles= World War I
World War II
awards=
relations=
laterwork= Farmer

Francesco Domenico Chiarello (November 5, 1898 – June 27, 2008) was, at age 109, the last soldier in the world to see action in both World Wars, as Briton Sydney Lucas was still in training when World War I ended and Claude Choules was a seaman. Chiarello was also one of the last two surviving Italian and Alpine Front veterans of the First World War, along with fellow 109-year-old Delfino Borroni.

Called up in 1918, he enlisted in the Castrovillari. He spent three months in training and then served as an infantryman at Cosenza. First sent to the front line in Trentino, he was later sent by sea from the port of Taranto to Albania. There he contracted malaria, but recovered in a field hospital. Afterwards he was sent to Montenegro where he served for two more years in the Italian army.

He later married and ran his farm in Umbriatico, but in 1940 he was called up again to fight in the Second World War at Reggio Calabria, to be discharged after six months. He lived in Cirò Marina until his death in June 2008.

ee also

* Veterans of World War I who died in 2008

References

* [http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=it&u=http://www.cimeetrincee.it/artic.htm&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=2&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3D%2522francesco%2Bdomenico%2Bchiarello%2522%26num%3D100%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff Biography of Chiarello]
* [http://romagnaoggi.it/cronaca_adnkronos/2008/6/28/8353/ Francesco Domenico Chiarello's obituary]