Salvatore Sapio
Rank: Staff Sergeant, U.S. Army
Serial: 32271748
Unit: 83rd Chemical Battalion, Motorized
Entered service from: Pennsylvania
Died:
Awards: Purple Heart
Memorialized at: Tablets of the Missing, Sicily-Rome American Cemetery, Nettuno, Italy
Biography
Staff Sergeant Salvatore Sapio grew up in Haddonfield, New Jersey, the son of Carmine and Concetta Sapio. His mother passed away in 1929. He had married and had managed the fruit and produce department of a local chain grocery store, and had also worked for the New York Shipbuilding Corporation prior to his military service. He was inducted into the United States Army on July 23, 1942, along with a boyhood friend, Arthur Sinclair.
Both men were assigned, with several other local men, to the 83rd Chemical Battalion, Motorized. This unit operated chemical mortars, firing phosphorous and smoke rounds. The 83rd went overseas in April of 1942. Salvatore Sapio was killed when the landing craft he was in, LST-422, was sunk by attacking German forces off the coast of Italy on January 26, 1944. Arthur Sinclair and several of the other local men assigned to the 83rd Chemical Battalion were also lost, including Lester Dyer, James Parks, and William Phenegar, all from Camden, New Jersey. Also lost were Stanley Pokorsky of Delaware Township (Cherry Hill), and Edwin Johnson from Magnolia.
Salvatore Sapio was survived by his wife Jean Sapio of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; his father Carmen Sapio; his sister, Mrs. Katherine Viggiano; and his brother John Sapio, all of Haddonfield, New Jersey. John Sapio’s son, Private First Class Charles Ralph Sapio, would be killed in action in January of 1945 in Europe.