Louis Cinfici and his entire family were honored by Representative Mark Gillen & the Pennsylvania General Assembly on May 24, 2017:

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 “On September 2, 1945, Lou Cinfici sat on his perch on an LT-784 and not too far away sat the USS Missouri and he witnessed the unconditional surrender of the Empire of Japan ending the Second World War. During the Korean Conflict, he and his two brothers were on the USS Sicily together. The storied career continued in 1962 aboard the USS Intrepid, where he helped bring Scott Carpenter out of the water after his flight; continued through the Vietnam war in Da Nang where he was stationed. The Solomon Islands, in World War II, the Gilberts, the Marshall Islands, Midway, and Lou Cinfici's footsteps also landed on the destroyed Japanese city of Nagasaki.

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As I read this morning out of Ecclesiastes, a particular verse struck me, "There is a time of war and there is a time of peace." I had a conversation with Lou not too long ago. He was relating that story of walking the leveled city of Nagasaki. He had walked in with a young lady who was trying to put her life back together, looking amidst the rubble for her possessions, and Lou Cinfici was there to help.

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Not only was Lou Cinfici in uniform during the Second World War, Lou Cinfici's five brothers were also in uniform, and he told me a story of coming into the Panama Canal Zone and the captain of the ship had learned that there were six Cinfici brothers in uniform and he offered Lou the opportunity to get off the ship and not go into the combat zone. I think we are all pretty sure what Lou's answer to that was. In fact, nine Cinfici brothers from Reading were in uniform in and around the Second World War. I would say that it is probably in their DNA, because Morris Cinfici, his father, was a World War I veteran.

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A very moving experience occurred in the Solomon Islands during the Second World War when Lou had learned that his brother was nearby, both of them in a combat zone, both of them in dangerous situations, and Lou got off of his ship and was able to embrace his brother and spend time with him.

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Ladies and gentlemen, the Cinfici family embodies the American spirit. Though they were eyewitnesses to history, they made history. They were participants. Their mother and father did not send a son or a daughter off to war. They sent nine children into harm's way, and by the grace of God, all nine Cinficis returned home to continue that service. We often refer to this as the Greatest Generation, but I pause in my own mind to wonder, what were the parents like of that Greatest Generation? What was it in their lives that produced that greatness? Faith; family; a love of duty, honor, and country.”

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