My uncle, Philip E. Bergquist, served the USA at 5th Army Headquarters from October 1943 until October 1945. These stories about his colleagues come from letters he sent home from Italy to his family.
Eugene is briefly mentioned in two of my uncles’ letters. Sometime in late 1944, a group photograph called “The Road to Rome” was sent home. By the end of January, my uncle was able to write home and identify everyone in the group photo. There were about 23 people in the photograph and my uncle was in the eighth row.(I have not yet located this photograph.) In the January letter, Eugene was identified as #9 – Pvt. Eugene A. Veto “Gene” from Chicago, Illinois.
Gene is mentioned about a month later, 22 February 1945, in another letter describing some rotations for the Headquarters staff. At this time, the Headquarters staff were rotating in pairs to various division and regimental headquarters “to see how the place is set up and run and also to try and help the divisions to develop better systems and give them any pointers which may help them out.” Eugene Veto and Russell Holtschlag were in the second group to rotate, which probably means they were on temporary duty sometime between 11 February and 17 February 1945.