Found in Trentino after 78 years: the bracelet of soldier Fred C. Street from the 10th Mountain Division

By Martina Mari

Last week, during a metal detector search on the slopes of Mount Baldo, Paolo Parolari from Arco, Trentino, the founder of the website www.aviationarchaeologytaa.it, discovered a silver bracelet buried in the ground.

The object had the inscription ‘Fred C. Street 234 836 153 Yours Dot’ engraved on it. This bracelet, lost 78 years ago, belonged to a soldier from the 10th Mountain Division, 86th Infantry Regiment, Company I, of the United States Army.

On April 19, 1945, while his unit was near Vergato on the Gothic Line, Fred disappeared during a patrol (Missing in Action), presumed missing in action. Vergato was ninety percent destroyed, and for several days, on his personal record, Fred was marked as missing. However, on April 25, 1945, the assigned officer updated the record as he had fortunately returned to his unit. Through the ‘Descendants of the 10th Mountain Division’ Association at the Resource Center of the Denver Public Library in Colorado, USA, Paolo Parolari, in addition to finding the still living daughters of soldier Fred, reconstructed his story during his time in Italy.

The Announcement of the Discovery on Mount Baldo in Trentino and Soldier Fred’s Story:

Last week, during a metal detector search on the slopes of Mount Baldo, Paolo Parolari from Arco, TN, the founder of the website www.aviationarchaeologytaa.it, discovered a silver bracelet buried in the ground. The object had the inscription ‘Fred C. Street 234 836 153 Yours Dot.’ This bracelet, lost 78 years ago, belonged to a soldier from the 10th Mountain Division of the United States Army.

In Italy during World War II, 19,780 soldiers from the 10th Mountain Division fought, and with their sacrifice, they contributed to building a better, just, and free world for future generations, and Fred was one of them. For several years, Paolo Parolari, a World War II history enthusiast, has been conducting research with a metal detector to find objects to document in the book he is writing about the ‘Liberation Struggle in the Basso Sarca Valley from 1943 to 1945.’

As soon as he saw the bracelet, he immediately understood that the discovery was significant and, upon returning home, he immediately contacted Denise Taylor, the President of the ‘Descendants of the 10th Mountain Division,’ at the Resource Center of the Denver Public Library in Colorado, USA, to report the discovery, request information about soldier Fred C. Street, and inquire if he had direct descendants to return the bracelet to his family.

The following day, via the web, the response from President Denise Taylor arrived, confirming that soldier Fred C. Street belonged to the 86th Infantry Regiment, Company I, of the 10th Mountain Division, wounded in combat near Torbole on May 1, 1945. It has been 78 years since the bracelet was lost, and there are still two living direct descendants, Gina Street Burke, 64, and Jane Ellene Street Hooper, 71. The wonderful and touching aspect of this story is that Gina Street still has Fred’s letters and about a letter he sent to his wife Dorothy on May 1, 1945, in which he wrote: “Yesterday afternoon I lost the bracelet he had given me.” The bracelet had been given to Fred by his wife Dorothy before leaving for the front in Italy. The writing “Your Dot” was because Fred always called her Dot.

Paolo Parolari deeply believes that Gina and Jane, Fred C. Street’s daughters, would be very happy to receive their father’s bracelet. It would be nice to raise the necessary funds to organize an official handover in Torbole, with the presence of the local authorities. If this is not possible, the bracelet will still be shipped to Fred’s daughters in the United States.

This is the story of soldier Fred C. Street, which Paolo Parolari reconstructed in collaboration with president Denise Taylor of the ‘Descendants of the 10th Mountain Division’, with Keli Schmid, head of the 10th Mountain Division Resource Center at the Denver Public Library in Colorado and with Fred C. Street’s daughter, Gina D. Street.

Fred Clinton Street was born on December 7, 1918 in Lilburn, Georgia, United States. Orphaned, he moved with relatives who raised him until he reached adulthood. His adoptive father worked for the Ford Motor Company. After graduating from the University of Georgia in 1937, he began working for the Ford Motor Company in Lilburn, Georgia. He married Dorothy Eloise Lanford on August 28, 1939, and they initially had two children: Fred Roscoe, born March 30, 1940, and Donna Adele, born November 1, 1942. He enlisted in the United States Army on July 6, 1944. , Fred he trained at various bases, the last of which was Camp Wheeler in Macon, Georgia in September 1944.

This camp was a stopover for many units of the U.S. Army during World War II. After completing his training, on December 10, 1944, he was sent to the European Theater of Operations (ETO) and arrived in Italy on December 23, 1944. Fred was assigned to the 8th Replacement Depot, a unit containing reserves or replacements to be sent to the front lines to maintain combat units at high numerical strength during prolonged fighting.

In April 1945, Fred was in the rear in northern Italy on the Gothic Line with the 8th Replacement Depot. On April 15, 1945, due to the significant soldier losses on the front in the 10th Mountain Division, he was transferred from the 8th Replacement Depot to the 10th Mountain Division. He was assigned to Company I of the 86th Infantry Regiment as a private. Armed with a Carbine M1 rifle, he participated with his company in several assaults on the German lines on the mountains of the Gothic Line. On April 19, 1945, while his unit was near Vergato on the Gothic Line, Fred went missing from his unit during a patrol, listed as Missing in Action. Vergato was a ghost town on the front line of the Gothic Line, which was ninety percent destroyed. For several days, his personal record indicated him as missing.

However, on April 25, 1945, the assigned officer updated the record as he had fortunately returned to his unit. The German Wehrmacht forces were retreating into the Po Valley, pursued by Allied forces, including the 10th Mountain Division. Fred, with Company I of the 86th Infantry, captured Villafranca di Verona airport and entered Verona before stopping in the rear. General George P. Hays’ orders were to reach Lake Garda immediately, and each regiment was ordered to advance for eight hours and then rest for 16 hours. On April 28, 1945, three kilometers from Malcesine, the 86th Regiment relieved the 85th.

Continuing towards Navene, they came to a halt again due to the impossibility of proceeding along the road as the Germans had demolished the entrance to the first tunnel. General George P. Hays’ objective was Torbole and securing control of both the Eastern and Western Gardesana roads on both sides of the lake. Some companies of the 86th Regiment climbed the mountain to bypass the German forces in Nago Torbole, while others, including Company I, advanced on foot and with amphibious vehicles along the Eastern Gardesana Road under enemy fire, from Navene to Torbole.

Company I was the first to enter Torbole on April 29, 1945, at 12:30 PM, but they were immediately slowed down by two German tanks and also by 88 mm cannons, which, firing at point-blank range, pushed Company I back about seven hundred meters. In the early afternoon, Company I received orders to reach the heights of Monte Baldo to bypass the Busatte area and then descend to Nago. During their approach from the ridge of Monte Baldo, they fired at the Germans as they withdrew from the valley below.

In the late evening, they received orders to halt, where they spent the entire night in the cold on the heights under a rain of shots fired by two German cannons against their Company, which was not visible but the Germans knew where it was positioned. On April 30, 1945, they descended from the heights and began their approach to Nago, which had already been captured by Companies C and B.

On the morning of May 1, 1945, Company I received orders to continue towards Riva del Garda and take position at S. Alessandro, in the recently abandoned Villa De Lutti by the German command. During their approach, not far from Torbole, Fred was injured in the hand by a German sniper.

In the late afternoon of May 2, 1945, the war in the Basso Sarca region came to an end, and after spending over two months in Italy, Fred returned to the United States on August 7, 1945, where he received several medals, including the Purple Heart, a U.S. military decoration awarded in the name of the President to those who were wounded or killed while serving in the armed forces.

Fred C. Street always lived with his wife, Dorothy, in Decatur, Georgia, with whom he had three more children: Philip, Jane, and Gina. Fred Clinton Street passed away in 1998, while his wife Dorothy passed away in 2007.