Alfred Bricca

An Oral History Interview with Alfred Bricca
9th New York Coast Defense Command 1917
Interviewed by Elaine Harmon, NPS March 11, 1981
Transcribed by Mary Rasa, 2011
Editor’s notes in parenthesis ( )

Elaine Harmon: I would like to introduce our special guest for today, Mr. Alfred Bricca, who would like to record for us his recollections of Fort Hancock in 1917. This is March 11, 1981 and my name is Elaine Harmon. I work at the Sandy Hook Museum as Park Technician and we would like to introduce a special guest for today Mr. Alfred Bricca. Mr. Bricca just began to tell me that in around June or July of 1917 he enlisted at the 14th Street Armory between 6th and 7th Avenue in New York City. From the Armory he was sent to Hoboken, New Jersey where he worked as a censor for a few months and then he went to Fort Hancock and stayed for about a year.

Alfred Bricca: Yeah. Yeah.

Elaine Harmon: From Fort Hancock he went to Fort Eustis, Virginia. So, tell us a little more about what you remember?

Alfred Bricca: Well, from Fort Hancock we went to, we stayed there quite a while.

Elaine Harmon: Right.

Alfred Bricca: And they shipped us to Camp Eustis and from Camp Eustis, I just don’t know how long we stayed there we went oversees from there.

Elaine Harmon: Right. You showed me a letter that is from France from November 1918. So we can reconstruct the time that you were trying to go back to that you spent about a year at Fort Hancock, then went to Fort Eustis for about five months you say.

Alfred Bricca: Something like that yeah.

Elaine Harmon: And this letter sort of…verifies that by November of 1918 you were in France and you were being promoted to a colonel.

Alfred Bricca: Corporal.

Elaine Harmon: Corporal, excuse me. (laughter) Boy that would be great. I meant corporal.

Alfred Bricca: Yeah. Yeah.

Elaine Harmon: So you were a private first class at Fort Hancock?

Alfred Bricca: A corporal.

Elaine Harmon: At Fort Hancock?

Alfred Bricca: Yeah. Yeah. Private first class.

Elaine Harmon: Right. And what was it like to be there? What was it like in 1917.

Alfred Bricca: Well, it was all right.

Mrs. Bricca: She’s taking all that down.

Alfred Bricca: Oh yeah. It was all right. It was nice. I mean we had, they used to take us on hikes. You know what I mean. They used to give us lectures and stuff like that.

Elaine Harmon: You were actually training you said.

Alfred Bricca: Oh yeah. We were training. We were digging trenches and stuff like that. Sure.

Elaine Harmon: Then you talk about guard duty. You were assigned to guard duty.

Alfred Bricca: Yeah. Oh yeah. Well, we had to do guard duty, I mean…

Elaine Harmon: And you were walking Post?

Alfred Bricca: Oh yeah, walking Post one night and this covered wagon didn’t stop and I fired a shot and he stopped.

Elaine Harmon: And what did you say were in the covered wagon? You said officers?

Alfred Bricca: They were all officers. So, when I got to him he was all bundled up. It was funny. He had a team of horses. I said, “When you get a challenge,” I said, “don’t you stop.” He said, “I didn’t hear ya.” He had all officers in there and they all had their hands up. They were afraid. (laughter)

Elaine Harmon: You must have frightened them.

Alfred Bricca: Yeah. Yeah.

Elaine Harmon: How many horses drove the wagons?

Alfred Bricca: Two, two horses.

Elaine Harmon: And was it a big wooden wagon?

Alfred Bricca: It was wooden and they had like seats.

Elaine Harmon: Right.

Alfred Bricca: It must have had fifteen, maybe ten or fifteen officers in there.

Elaine Harmon: And when you were walking Post was it, you said you were along the bayside most of the time. Is that right?

Alfred Bricca: They put you all over. I mean they put you all over. They put you anyplace doing guard duty. I was at the Parade Ground there one night when this wagon come by, see, and I was walking Post. It must have been maybe, eleven, twelve o’clock at night. And that’s when I, you know, gave him a challenge. You know and they didn’t stop. So, when I fired a shot he stopped.

Elaine Harmon: You described for me you uniform. Can you tell us a little bit about you uniform? It was issued at the Quartermasters’ Building?

Alfred Bricca: Yeah, I don’t, I guess so. Yeah. They had a quartermaster there. They had everything there. They were giving uniforms out and things like that.

Elaine Harmon: Do you remember that it was next door to the bakery? The quartermasters.

Alfred Bricca: Ah, that I don’t remember. No.

Elaine Harmon: Where a lot of people tell us you could buy a loaf of bread for three cents.

Alfred Bricca: That I don’t remember.

Elaine Harmon: That it was a terrific bakery if fact by what we were told by veterans.

Alfred Bricca: Yeah.

Elaine Harmon: And you had you said olive drab tunic?

Alfred Bricca: Yeah. Yeah.

Elaine Harmon: With the stand up collar? And the insignia you had you had the 9th Regiment.

Alfred Bricca: 9th Regiment.

Elaine Harmon: Insignia on it. Which I guess was brass? Was it brass?

Alfred Bricca: Brass I think it was.

Elaine Harmon: Circular.

Alfred Bricca: I had one or two. I don’t know what I had done with them.

Elaine Harmon: Right. And you had a campaign hat?

Alfred Bricca: Yeah I had a campaign hat here, but when you were in France they gave you a hat like this.

Elaine Harmon: A steel helmet was it you mean?

Alfred Bricca: No.

Elaine Harmon: Right. It’s an overseas cap.

Alfred Bricca: Yeah.

Elaine Harmon: That’s what that is called.

Alfred Bricca: And I had a helmet. Yeah. A gas mask. Something like that.

Elaine Harmon: You campaign hat had a red cord on it? Was there a red cord around it?

Alfred Bricca: Yeah. I think there was a red cord. Yeah, you are right.

Elaine Harmon: It was Coast Artillery red.

Alfred Bricca: Yeah. Artillery, that’s right.

Elaine Harmon: And the pants were they like balloon pants? Britches, were they…?

Alfred Bricca: No. We had the leggings.

Elaine Harmon: No, but the pants, you can see it here, they were like balloon pants?

Alfred Bricca: Right. Yeah. Yeah. Like balloon pants, I see. Yeah. Yeah.

Elaine Harmon: Like britches and wrapped leggings.

Alfred Bricca: Wrapped leggings, that’s right.

Elaine Harmon: And you were issued any kind of a weapon?

Alfred Bricca: We had a rifle.

Elaine Harmon: Do you know what kind it was?

Alfred Bricca: I think it was and Enfield, I think.

Elaine Harmon: Enfield rifle.

Alfred Bricca: I think so. Yeah, if I remember right.

Elaine Harmon: Was that part of your training also to learn, target practice?

Alfred Bricca: Oh yeah. Sure. We used to go on hikes and stuff like that on the range and firing and stuff. They kept you pretty busy.

Elaine Harmon: Did you load guns?

Alfred Bricca: Oh yeah. Yeah. Them big guns.

Elaine Harmon: But you don’t remember the names of the gun batteries.

Alfred Bricca: No. I really don’t.

Elaine Harmon: But you remember being in the pit?

Alfred Bricca: Oh yeah.

Elaine Harmon: With the disappearing guns?

Alfred Bricca: Yeah. Yeah.

Elaine Harmon: And loading it on a cart.

Alfred Bricca: They still got those pits there?

Elaine Harmon: Yes. The pits are still there.

Alfred Bricca: Next time I go with Pauline I am going to look for them.

Elaine Harmon: But they are very overgrown.

Alfred Bricca: Oh yeah.

Elaine Harmon: You won’t recognize it

Alfred Bricca: No kidding. You mean to tell me they covered it or something.

Elaine Harmon: What happens is that nature takes over and it just grows immediately back, you know reverts to nature.

Alfred Bricca: Yeah.

Elaine Harmon: And there is sumac and poison ivy and…

Alfred Bricca: Yeah. I see, yeah. Yeah.

Elaine Harmon: Because we don’t have the thousands of soldiers there just to clear out the pits.

Alfred Bricca: That’s right. Yeah.

Elaine Harmon: …and constantly polish the guns and do what the Army did. They had plenty of people in the Army to do that. And we are reduced to a small staff. And it began to deteriorate over a period of years when the Army knew they were not going to use it anymore. You remember the barber shop?

Alfred Bricca: See we were doing guard duty in Jersey too. We were there with the 15th (New York National Guard) Infantry Regiment from Harlem.

Elaine Harmon: In Bayonne?

Alfred Bricca: In Hoboken.

Elaine Harmon: Oh, Hoboken, I’m sorry. You were with the…

Alfred Bricca: Yeah. We were doing guard duty there and this colored regiment from Harlem, they were there.

Elaine Harmon: So you remember a black group that were…?

Alfred Bricca: Black regiment, yeah. They were the 15th Regiment from Harlem.

Elaine Harmon: And you also said you were a censor. You inspected packages?

Alfred Bricca: Well, no that was in Hoboken where we inspected packages.

Elaine Harmon: Right. Right.

Alfred Bricca: We stayed there quite a while.

Elaine Harmon: And where was the 15th, the Harlem…

Alfred Bricca: Well, they were with us there. Yeah. I think it was Long Branch. Do I remember Long Branch?

Elaine Harmon: Long Branch, that’s nearby.

Alfred Bricca: Kee…

Elaine Harmon: Keansburg? That’s in New Jersey.

Alfred Bricca: No. I forget now where.

Elaine Harmon: Do you remember much about the 15th Regiment?

Alfred Bricca: No. But they used to do guard duty. I seen them there. They were guards.

Elaine Harmon: Not many people have mentioned black soldiers.

Mrs. Bricca: Do you get a lot of people there?

Elaine Harmon: Yeah. Not many people mention black soldiers in our...

Mrs. Bricca: Oh they had black soldiers there?

Elaine Harmon: He’s talking about the Harlem…

Alfred Bricca: They had regulars from Harlem up there.

Elaine Harmon: What about, you said you could point out the Barber Shop which I think is Building 77?

Alfred Bricca: Well, that building I saw it with…

Elaine Harmon: Right you said it has two steps.

Alfred Bricca: Yeah. The Barber Shop. It had a few steps. It was still there. It was near the prison, near the Museum.

Elaine Harmon: Right. That’s building 77, I know. It was also a laundry at one time.

Alfred Bricca: Oh yeah.

Elaine Harmon: Right and a tailor shop.

Alfred Bricca: Oh yeah.

Elaine Harmon: But you remember it having two barber chairs in there?

Alfred Bricca: I don’t know. Maybe they had two, three, it was a barber shop.

Elaine Harmon: What did they charge you? Do you remember?

Alfred Bricca: I don’t remember that.

Elaine Harmon: Was it a quarter or…

Mrs. Bricca: Must have been very little.

Alfred Bricca: A quarter, thirty cents, thirty-five cents while I was there.

Elaine Harmon: What were you making in those days in the Army? What salary were you making?

Alfred Bricca: They were getting, first we were getting fifteen (dollars), then they gave us twenty. When we went overseas we got thirty.

Mrs. Bricca: A month.

Alfred Bricca: Yeah. Then we got thirty.

Elaine Harmon: Did you have a little payroll book? Someone showed me one in the museum one day. It was a little salary book.

Alfred Bricca: Oh yeah. That I don’t…

Mrs. Bricca: That’s interesting, isn’t it?

Elaine Harmon: It’s very nice.

Alfred Bricca: That I don’t remember. Yeah. I don’t remember that

Elaine Harmon: Were you given ration tickets and coupons and stuff like that? Do you remember coupons for cigarettes or…

Alfred Bricca: Well, there was like the Red Cross, Salvation Army, those things that would give you cigarettes, you know.

Elaine Harmon: Right. That’s right.

Alfred Bricca: Yeah. They used to give me cigarettes. And then the government used to give me, they used to give you Bull Durham.

Elaine Harmon: What is that?

Alfred Bricca: Tobacco. You roll your own cigarettes. You roll your own cigarettes. They used to give you the paper. That was government issue like. Yeah. You used to roll your own cigarettes.

Elaine Harmon: What was it like on payday? You gave me a good question. What was payday like? Did you go up to the Paymaster’s window?

Alfred Bricca: Oh yeah. They give you all new money. And everybody start gambling there.

Elaine Harmon: That’s what everybody tells me. (laughter) They would immediately go out drinking or go gambling.

Alfred Bricca: Yeah.

Mrs. Bricca: Well, better gambling at least they wouldn’t get hurt. Sometimes drinking they would get into a fight. Right?

Elaine Harmon: Right. Someone told me that is why they gave them canteen checks. So that you had a little coupon book so that after you sent all you mad money…

Alfred Bricca: Oh, yeah you are right. They did have that.

Elaine Harmon:…at least you would have your canteen checks.

Alfred Bricca: Yeah you are right. Yeah.

Elaine Harmon: We have them in the museum. We have them out on display from time to time. I keep changing it.

Alfred Bricca: Oh yeah.

Elaine Harmon: But just to show people who have never seen them before, the fact that they gave you a little coupon book so that after everybody went crazy gambling and drinking their money off they still had a little something if they wanted to buy shaving cream or cigarettes or whatever. It’s kind of interesting.

Alfred Bricca: Yeah. Yeah. (inaudible)

Elaine Harmon: What was in the PX? Do you remember? What was the PX like? Do you remember much?

Alfred Bricca: Well, it was a building. It was a building something like a small building.

Elaine Harmon: The Post Exchange.

Alfred Bricca: (looking at a photograph) Something maybe like this, the Post Exchange. Yeah. Yeah. That’s it. They had everything in there. You know they had cigarettes. You could buy anything you…

Elaine Harmon: Right. In fact, in the Museum we have a big towel that says Fort Hancock.

Alfred Bricca: Yeah. Sure. That I never…

Elaine Harmon: Which someone bought in the PX during World War II time and they bought it for a quarter I think it was. And that’s a great item to have. I have had that out. And it says Fort Hancock on a big stripe.

Alfred Bricca: Yeah. I never saw it.

Elaine Harmon: Just like a hotel towel, you know.

Mrs. Bricca: They got a museum up in Fort Hancock?

Elaine Harmon: Yeah. He was there. And he remembers it as a jail. It was a jail and a guardhouse.

Alfred Bricca: yeah. Johnny was (inaudible) Those chains and locks…holy…What a horrible place that was.

Elaine Harmon: What was the, in the photographs that you showed me, what was the storm like? Can you tell me? What can you remember about that big storm?

Alfred Bricca: Well, it was during the night. We woke up. There was a gush of wind and rain. We run into these barracks…

Elaine Harmon: The brick barracks, right.

Alfred Bricca: Yeah. Right in here.

Elaine Harmon: At the time you were living in a canvas tent.

Alfred Bricca: Yeah in the tents we were in the canvas. And we went in there. See these were regular barracks.

Elaine Harmon: Right

Alfred Bricca: And we washed up in there. We stayed in there for the rest of the night. That was one day they put us in barracks.

Elaine Harmon: In the morning, did you find all you tents were…

Alfred Bricca: Oh, they were all down. See like this. (looking at photographs)

Elaine Harmon: Destroyed. According to what they are wearing it must have been a fairly, it must have been like spring time or summer time? Because they are not wearing.

Alfred Bricca: Oh yeah it was a summer time

Elaine Harmon: It was a summer storm.

Alfred Bricca: Oh, yeah. It was summer time.

Elaine Harmon: Was there flooding? Did the water come over the Bay?

Alfred Bricca: No. No. It was just a gush or wind and rain, you know. They tore up all the tents down and that was it.

Elaine Harmon: What was the submarine rumor that you were telling me about? What do you remember?

Alfred Bricca: Well, I heard from New York, you know the way they talk. I heard that in New York, they say they saw a submarine at Fort Hancock, you know.

Elaine Harmon: But you never heard anymore about that?

Alfred Bricca: No. Never heard more about that.

Mrs. Bricca: Did you hear this from others too?

Elaine Harmon: Oh yeah. We’ve heard it from several veterans. You mentioned a whole bunch of names to me. Colonel Burns, you said was the 9th….

Alfred Bricca: Colonel Burns was the head of the Regiment.

Elaine Harmon: The 9th?

Alfred Bricca: I don’t know if he died and they put another guy there.

Elaine Harmon: And then there was Captain Cole.

Alfred Bricca: He was a Captain on my company, the 9th.

Elaine Harmon: Right and Claude Ranzetti whom you think may still be alive? Isn’t that right?

Alfred Bricca: Claude Ranzetti. He’s in Brooklyn. I don’t know if he’s living.

Elaine Harmon: Fred Valentino, he’s ...

Alfred Bricca: He died.

Elaine Harmon: And Harry Romano. And Anthony Antonelli.

Alfred Bricca: He died.

Elaine Harmon: And Tom Costa you were..

Alfred Bricca: He died.

Elaine Harmon: And Arthur Varone

Alfred Bricca: He died.

Elaine Harmon: So maybe some day we can find Mr. Ranzetti and tape record him too.

Alfred Bricca: He’s in Brooklyn, I don’t know.

Mrs. Bricca: You know he’s in Brooklyn?

Alfred Bricca: I guess so. I don’t know. I never, I don’t know anybody that knows him.

Mrs. Bricca: Yeah. We never heard of him after he moved, in fact, after he got married. He got married a short time after he come home from the Army.

Alfred Bricca: Yeah. Yeah.

Elaine Harmon: And from the 9th Regiment you went to the 47th, Battery C.

Alfred Bricca: Yeah. I got discharged out of the 47th.

Elaine Harmon: Right. And what year was that? How old were you?

Alfred Bricca: 1919, I think it was 1919. Yeah. It was February 1919. The war ended in 1918.

Elaine Harmon: Yeah. Right. How did it feel to be back. I mean did you feel like a hero? Did you feel very proud?

Alfred Bricca: Well, then at least they respected you. You know.

Elaine Harmon: They were proud of you.

Alfred Bricca: These poor kids from Vietnam.

Elaine Harmon: It’s a shame.

Mrs. Bricca: It’s true everybody says the same thing.

Alfred Bricca: The poor kids from Vietnam, they don’t even consider them, now they do, now they consider them veterans I think.

Elaine Harmon: Yeah, but still

Mrs. Bricca: A lot of them, them poor boys they got mixed up in drugs like I hear. A lot of good boys.

Alfred Bricca: They lost a lot. They didn’t lose many men in the First World War.

Mrs. Bricca: Not compared to what they lost in this war.

Alfred Bricca: No. What they lost in this war…

Mrs. Bricca: Some of them got involved in the drugs and that was terrible.

Elaine Harmon: It’s a shame.

Alfred Bricca: (inaudible) gives you all these figures. We lost very few men because we went in late. You know what I mean. The Germans were fighting in 1914. This country went in, in 1917 and in August, no April 6th. I think April 6th we went in there. They declared war. Geez, I remember that night. I brought a paper. I was a kid. I was young. I looked. No, they declared war on Germany, what was it when they sank the Lusitania, no.

Elaine Harmon: But you remember it was April 6th. You remember the date.

Mrs. Bricca: April 6th was it?

Alfred Bricca: April 6th. (1917)

Mrs. Bricca: Are you sure?

Alfred Bricca: “Congress Declares War on Germany”. I think it was, was it April the 6th? Yeah.

Elaine Harmon: You have a very good memory. It is astounding. What is the date of your birth again? I forgot to write it down.

Alfred Bricca: March 14, 1899.

Elaine Harmon: Wow. That is pretty astounding. And you had not been to Fort Hancock until this summer, August 1980.

Alfred Bricca: Yeah. The first time.

Mrs. Bricca: He had mentioned it quite a few times.

Alfred Bricca: Pauline is a schoolteacher.

Mrs. Bricca: My daughter.

Alfred Bricca: She did all the work. She got everything. Even if I had an I.D. card. (inaudible)

Mrs. Bricca: How to get in there, you know.

Elaine Harmon: Sure. So you hadn’t been back in 63, 64 years.

Alfred Bricca: That was the first time.

Elaine Harmon: That’s amazing.

Alfred Bricca: And if I live long enough I’m going in December again.

Elaine Harmon: That would be great. I’ll come and see you that time I’ll make sure if I know you are there. I’ll be sure to be there.

Alfred Bricca: Sure. I hope I see you there. Yeah. Yeah

Elaine Harmon: I’ll introduce you to Tom, the authority.

That concludes our interview which was conducted on March 11, 1981 with Alfred Bricca who gave us his recollections of Fort Hancock in 1917. This tape recording was taken at his residence. 299 Pearl Street in Lower Manhattan after we decided to follow him up after he had been to the Museum in August of 1980 and was greeted by John Krisco. END OF INTERVIEW