ALBERT MANCINELLI

Al Mancinelli was born on March 7, 1922, in Newburgh, New York, a first-generation American into an Italian family. He came to Shelby in 1962 from Charlotte, where he had lived and worked for fifteen years. He was hired in Shelby as a lithographer and worked for Shelby Printing and Riviere Printing Companies before retiring from Craftsman Printing Company.

In this interview Mancinelli discusses his growing up years in an Italian neighborhood in Newburgh and dropping out of high school to join the National Guard, along with some of his buddies because they knew the war was coming. He was sent to various locations throughout the U.S. for training. When World War II started, he was put into the regular Army and was sent overseas in 1944. Stationed in New Chateau, France, his unit, the 464th, was part of the invasion of Germany.