Chapter 28
San Francisco, 1945
As soon as Tony cleared the troop ship, he knelt and kissed the ground. After a long tour in the Pacific theater that included the Philippines, all he wanted was to feel terra firma under his feet and have an authentic Italian supper. But first, he craved a well-deserved libation to celebrate his homecoming.
Unlike some of the guys, he had no perfumed sweetheart throwing herself into his waiting arms, no family cheering as he disembarked. Antonio Baldini was nearly alone in the world.
Other buddies had crowded into the first cheesy dive bar they found on the docks, but Tony wanted his first celebratory drink back on American soil to be special. Although he was proud of his service, he’d waited a long, long time for this moment.
While the Iowa and Nebrask
