Jacob C. Attone
Second Lieutenant Jacob C. Attone, 414th Night Fighter Squadron, U.S. Army Air Force.
Second Lieutenant Jacob C. Attone was born on June 2, 1920. He was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Frank Attone of 2121 Berwick Street in Camden NJ. Jacob Attone was a 1939 graduate of Camden High School, where he was on the track team and took part in the school newspaper and yearbook publication. After high school he took a job with the RCA-Victor Corporation in Camden.
Jacob Attone’s family had emigrated from Italy. The original family name was Altadonna, but it had been mangled at Ellis Island when his parents came to America. Over the years various members of the family changed the name back to Altadonna. Jacob’s brothers Anthony and Rosario, known as Russell, changed it when they went into the service. Jacob enlisted in the New Jersey National Guard on June 3, 1940, as Jacob Attone, and was called to active duty when the Guard was mobilized on September 16, 1940. Jacob Attone was planning on retaking the Altadonna name but sadly, his time ran out.
After qualifying for flight duty, Jacob Attone completed his pre-flight training at San Antonio TX in December of 1942, along with another Camden resident, Ernest Hartline. The Camden Courier-Post reports that he trained as a radar observer on a fighter plane, indicating he was training with a night fighter unit, a concept which had only become possible with the development of wartime radar. Jacob Attone graduated from the Boca Raton FL Army Air Field, after which he went overseas, flying his first mission as a radar observer on September 24, 1944. He was reported as missing in action on September 25, 1944.
The Department of War changed Jacob Attone’s status to killed in action on April 11, 1945. Besides his parents, he left two brothers, PFC Rosario Altadonna, who had been serving overseas since July of 1942, and Private Anthony Altadonna, who was then stationed in North Carolina; and three sisters, Angeline, Josephine, and Catherine. A Solemn High Mass was said for Jacob Attone at St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church, Federal Street, Camden NJ, on Monday, April 23, 1945.
Jacob Attone was brought home after the war and was buried at Calvary Cemetery in Delaware Township (present-day Cherry Hill) NJ on December 7, 1948. His block on Berwick Street was razed in the early 1950s to make way for the Peter J. McGuire Gardens public housing project.
Grave of Second Lieutenant Jacob C. Attone, Calvary Cemetery, Cherry Hill NJ.
Lt. Attone Rites Set Wednesday
Camden Courier-Post —
Blessing for Second Lt. Jacob C. Attone, of 1717 West River Drive, Pennsauken, will be at 11 a.m. Wednesday in St. Joseph’s R.C. Church, Twenty-ninth street and Westfield avenue. Burial will be in Calvary cemetery.
Relatives and friends will meet at 10 a.m. in the funeral home at 2850 Federal street, where friends may call tomorrow night.
Lt. Attone, assigned to the 414th Night Fighter Squadron, U.S. Army Air Force, was killed in Italy while flying his first mission as a radar observer. He was reported missing Sept. 24, 1944, and on April 11, 1945, was listed as killed.
He graduated from Camden high school in 1939 and enlisted in the New Jersey National Guard June 3, 1940. Lieutenant Attone took his flying training at Boca Raton Field, La., and immediately was assigned to the fighter squadron.
Surviving are his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Frank Attone; three sisters, Mrs. Angeline Farsad, Josephine Attone and Catherine Attone; and two brothers, Rosario and Anthony.