During his 2019 visit to The National WWII Museum during the 75th Anniversary of D-Day, I sat down with him to discuss the attack on Pearl Harbor and his experiences in the Pacific during the war. Right in front of the American Sector restaurant, we sat for over an hour as he recounted what happened to him on December 7, 1941. He told me how the Marines would pull pranks on the soldiers at Hickam and vice versa in the months leading up to December 7. At one point, he began to tear up when he brought up his hometown friend, John J. Horan. 

John was in the US Army Air Force and also stationed at Hickam on December 7. Chick and John had just finished breakfast together at the mess hall when the attack began. While walking back to their barracks, they heard the planes overhead and saw smoke coming from Pearl Harbor. It would not be until the next day that Chick learned his friend had been killed during the attack. John J. Horan was the first resident of the village of North Tarrytown (now Sleepy Hollow) to be killed in World War II, and Galella did not want him to be forgotten. He proudly told me how in 1999, he petitioned the village to rename a park in Sleepy Hollow to “Horan’s Landing,” in honor of his friend killed in the Pearl Harbor attack. 

After he visited the Museum, he went to initiate the project for The Mar­garet J Ho­ran Gold Star Moth­ers’ Memo­r­ial at Ho­ran’s Land­ing Park in Sleepy Hol­low. This project erected a Gold Star Mother Memo­r­ial to honor Mar­garet J Ho­ran, mother of John J Ho­ran. In hon­or­ing Mrs. Ho­ran, the memo­r­ial also hon­ors all Gold Star Moth­ers. Decades after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Chick never forgot to honor his fallen friend. Chick told me that people often called him a hero, but he said John J Horan was his hero.

Even though the topics we discussed were heavy and, at times, very somber, that did not stop Chick Galella’s personality from shining through. He told me about his love of the Yankees (and as a Boston Red Sox fan, that part of the conversation was hard for me to hear), cooking, and dancing. He was dancing up and down the hallways of the Museum. In fact, I think he may have danced with half the staff members from the Museum that day. 

Abbie Edens, the Museum’s Director of Education, had the pleasure of introducing Chick at the Museum’s Victory Six concert on the evening of D-Day 75. Abbie acknowledged all WWII veterans, Holocaust survivors, and Home Front workers in attendance prior to the band’s performance. Chick had been outside “holding court” with several staff members and visitors to the Museum. Once he arrived, Abbie called out a warm welcome from the stage, to which he took off his Pearl Harbor veteran cap, waved it in the air, and started to dance. 

During the evening, Abbie checked in with his son and daughter-in-law to see how Chick was doing. They both stated that he was still dancing the night away! Chick lit up the room the moment he walked in, and his presence at our commemoration was one that our staff will never forget. Even though Armando “Chick” Galella is no longer with us, he leaves a legacy of patriotism and service. He will continue to inspire all of us at The National WWII Museum who knew him.

Armando Galella’s oral history can be viewed on the Museum’s Digital Collections site.