Dilenardo, Emidee

Description

Emideo Di Lonardo

Emideo Di Lonardo was born in Rye, New York March 17, 1907 where he was raised and educated. He was a son of Marco and Maria Di Lonardo and in Rye his family lived at 62 Cedar Place.

Emideo enlisted and served in the U.S. Navy during World War II. He was a veteran of four years service with the Seabees in the Pacific theater of World War II.

United States Naval Construction Battalions, better known as the Navy Seabees, form the U.S. Naval Construction Force (NCF). The Seabee nickname is a heterograph of the first letters “C B” from the words Construction Battalion. Naval Construction Battalions were conceived of as replacements to civilian construction companies in combat zones after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

At the time civilian contractors had roughly 70,000 men working U.S.N. contracts overseas. International law made it illegal for civilian workers to resist an attack. Doing so would classify them as guerrillas and could lead to summary execution. The concept model CB was a USMC trained military equivalent of those civilian companies: able to work anywhere, under any conditions or circumstances. It was realized that CBs were flexible, adaptable and could be utilized in every theater of operations.

The use of USMC organization allowed for smooth co-ordination, integration or interface between NCF and Marine Corps elements. Additionally, CBs could be deployed individually or in multiples as the project scope and scale dictated. Adm. Ernest King wrote to the Seabees on their second anniversary, “Your ingenuity and fortitude have become a legend in the naval service.” Seabees believe that anything they are tasked with, they “Can Do”.

Emideo was honorably discharged from the Seabees in December 1945. SEE MUSTER ROLLS
After the war he married Emily Loudon and the couple moved to Yonkers, NY. He was employed as a bricklayer with Local 22 of the Bricklayers’ Union.

Emideo Di Lonardo, 52, died of a heart attack June 10, 1959 at St. John’s Riverside Hospital.

His wife, Emily Loudon DI Lonardo died five years earlier. At the time of his death he was survived by a stepdaughter, Miss Johanna Loudon of Yonkers; two brothers, Frank of Mountainview, Calif., and Joseph of Yonkers, and a sister, Mrs. Angelo (Lena) D’Anna of Yonkers.