Henry Polichetti, 107, remembers the days before radio and TV. Growing up in a cold water flat on Federal Hill, Henry cites living through World War I, Prohibition, the Great Depression and World War II. Henry is the oldest WWII veteran in Cranston and his family is working on finding out if he is the oldest Rhode Island veteran from the Second World War.

Henry joined the U.S. Navy at age 26, shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Henry always had a fascination with the radio. The first radio his family purchased had earphones – resulting in Henry and his four siblings fighting over who would listen to the radio. Later on, his brother traded the radio in for one with a speaker which Henry said “eliminated the problem.”

Henry attended night school where he took a course on radio repairing and received his FCC radio license. Henry attended basic training at the Newport Naval Training Station and was assigned to the Naval Radio Operators School in Bedford Springs, Pennsylvania, as an instructor. In December 1943, he was transferred to the Direction Finder School in Casco Bay, Maine – a top secret school. Henry taught individuals how to use LORAN as well as radio direction finders; radiomen were trained on the newly developed H/F cathode ray direction finder which located U-boats by intercepting their sighting and position reports.

While Henry went on ships to adjust equipment and would go out on exercises and see how they operated, he described himself as “the sailor who never went to sea.”

In a letter recommending Henry for advancement to chief radioman, R. A. Dorwart, Lieut. U.S.N.R. the officer-in-charge explained why Henry had not gone to sea.

“This man was such an outstanding instructor in his confidential specialty that it was to the best interested of the Navy to retain him as instructor at this school until this type of instruction ceased,” wrote Dorwart in November 1945.

Henry was transferred to another teaching assignment at the Loran School at the Pacific Fleet Training Center at Pearl Harbor when Germany surrendered in 1945 and anti-submarine warfare operations ended in the Atlantic. When Japan surrendered after the dropping of two atomic bombs, Henry came home.

Henry spent his three years and tenth months in the Navy involved with training exercises, classrooms, electronic maintenance servicing and German interception work.

“So when the war ended, I came home without any medals, any campaign ribbons except with the satisfaction that I’d trained thousands of people,” Henry said.

After returning, Henry married his girlfriend, Eleanor, who he’d met at age 16 through his sister. They moved to Cranston in 1946 where Henry has lived ever since. They went on to have two daughters, Eleanor and Barbara, and a granddaughter, Nicole.

After his career in the Navy, Henry went on to work as the personnel director of Trifari Jewelry in East Providence. Trafari, at Mamie Eisenhower’s request, manufactured a special necklace which she wore at the Presidential Inaugural Ball and is currently on display at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C.

These days, Henry – who barely uses a cane or walker – spends a lot of time on his laptop computer and said he’s looking at audio books and would like to try using a Kindle; he added that he has a nice porch to go read on. He’s also put together a binder of his life experiences – adding pages to it from time to time. Eleanor and her husband, Bill, recently moved in with Henry. Bill said he is working to get Henry a citation from the governor, and – while Henry is the oldest WWII veteran in Cranston, the family is waiting to hear if Henry is the oldest WWII veteran in the state.