Frank Luccardi - Agawam, MA
Posted by: 
neoc1
N 42° 04.116 W 072° 36.933
18T E 697268 N 4660143
A Purple Heart Trail marker honoring TEC 5 Frank I. Luccardi, U.S. Army, is located on the southbound side of Main Street, opposite Monroe Street, in Agawam, MA.
Waymark Code: WMWGC9
Location: Massachusetts, United States
Date Posted: 09/02/2017
Views: 1
Agawam has placed a series of Purple Heart Trail markers along
the southbound, west side of Main Street. Each marker honors a veteran that received the Purple Heart during their military service.
The purple and white sign contains the image the Purple Heart medal on the left side and the inscription:
PURPLE
HEART
TRAIL
-------------------------------------------------
FRANK LUCCARDI US ARMY KIA WWII
-------------------------------------------------
AGAWAM, MA
TEC 5 Frank Luccardi was one of the victims of one of the greatest tragedies of World War II, the sinking of the HMT Rohna. TEC 5 Frank I. Luccardi was attached to the U.S. Army Air Forces, 853rd Engineer Battalion, Aviation serving aboard the HMT Rohna, a British India Steam Navigation Company passenger and cargo liner that was requisitioned as a troop carrier ship in 1940. On November 26, 1943 Rohna was attacked and sunk in the Mediterranean by a Henschel Hs 293 radio guided rocket-boosted glide bomb launched by a Luftwaffe aircraft. As a result, 1,138 men were killed, 1015 of whom were US troops. TEC 5 Frank Luccardi is
memorialized at the North Africa American Cemetery, Carthage, Tunisia. He was awarded the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart.