Easy Company Medic Eugene Roe

Daily SouthTown (IL) - Sept. 9, 2001

Easy Company Medic Eugene Roe: Band Of Brothers in the News: Daily SouthTown (IL) - Sept. 9, 2001

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By Chris Langlois (Chrisdfw) (209.246.130.38 - 209.246.130.38) on Wednesday, October 31, 2001 - 09:31 pm:

Joliet man portrayed in Band of Brothers

By Paige Fumo Fox
Staff writer
Sunday, September 9, 2001

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When Frank Perconte enlisted in the Army in 1942, he was 25 and about to become part of one of the Army's newest and most elite regiments. The paratroopers formed the Easy Company, 506th Regiment of the 101st Airborne, heroes whose stories are told in the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers.

It was hazardous duty, but the extra $50 a month that came with it was enticing. The higher income would one day help Perconte raise a family in Joliet with his sweetheart, Evelyn, whom he married on his first furlough.

When Perconte returned home at the end of his duty in September 1945 with a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star, Perconte met his 23-month-old son, Richard, for the first time.

Between Perconte's first furlough and the first time he held his son, Easy Company paratroopers fought in the invasion of Normandy, the liberation of Carentan, the battle at Bastogne and the capture of Adolf Hitler's Eagle's Nest. Perconte suffered a leg injury, but watched many of his friends lose their lives in the fight.

Historian Stephen Ambrose told the Easy Company story in his 1992 book, Band of Brothers, on which the HBO series produced by director Steven Spielberg and actor Tom Hanks is based. The first two episodes air tonight.

"We were together all the way through. ... You get to like some of them and hate a few of them. Some of them got to be my very good friends," Perconte said.

For the past two years, Perconte has been having fun reuniting with those friends and with the actors and crews who created Band of Brothers, including 25-year-old James Madio, who portrays Perconte.

Since before filming began, Madio would call Perconte several times a week to learn the details of his experience, hoping to make the film as authentic as possible.

"To meet the veterans, the experience was overwhelming," Madio said. "You're acting out a live hero."

The veterans were treated like heroes during the filming and for the screenings in France, Los Angeles, Chicago and other cities that followed.

HBO flew actors and veterans to France for the anniversary of D-Day, returning to Utah Beach and Carentan. Perconte recalls his thoughts from his summer visit to Utah Beach, now a quiet expanse of shoreline. It was the first time he'd seen it since the war.

"I'm sure glad that I flew over it," Perconte said, having seen from above the action that was taking place on the ground.

The men of the Easy Company have left an impression on the younger actors who played them.

"I talked to Frank a lot. He's like my new buddy. He's a good man, a really good man," Madio said, admitting he doesn't mind the fact that his new buddy consistently calls him Jamie, not James.

When Madio first arrived in London to prepare for shooting the film, he and the other actors received packets of information about the paratroopers they would portray. Madio got inaccurate information: He was told Perconte was dead. It wasn't until he talked to another man of the Easy Company, Carwood Lipton, that he learned the truth.

"Ever since then, I wanted everything to be right," Madio said. Both Perconte and Madio agree the casting was just right.

"Everyone says he looks like me. I'm a little bigger, a little huskier," Perconte said, comparing Madio to himself at 25. "I sure like him. He's a nice kid."

The actor from the Bronx and the veteran from Joliet share an Italian-American background. They both have Roman noses, big smiles and a friendly, outgoing nature.

Madio said that by talking to the others from Easy Company, he learned Perconte could be counted on to boost morale in the company. Perconte was also meticulous. While he was in the service, Evelyn made sure to send toothpaste in Perconte's care packages.

"They'd say if you want to find Perconte, look for a tree with his toothbrush hanging from it," Perconte said, smiling.

Madio said Band of Brothers contains a handful of scenes in which he's brushing his teeth, and he made sure his helmet was always positioned perfectly.

"I don't know how, but he was clean-shaven all that time," Madio said.

Learning about Perconte took a little bit of prying. It was easier to get the veterans to talk about their buddies than about themselves, Madio said.

"The first thing that came to them was the guy who was to the left or the right of them," Madio said, so he would frequently turn to Lipton for more details of what Perconte was like as a younger man and a soldier.

Before shooting Band of Brothers, the actors went through two weeks of boot camp, run by a retired U.S. Marine Corps captain. The actors-turned-recruits awoke at 5 a.m. for 15-hour or longer days starting with 5-mile runs and weapons training. After that, it was "in the field all day long," Madio said.

"If you had guard duty, you stayed up all night and still got up at 5 a.m. to go jogging," Madio said. "Nobody complained. They knew better.

"When you realized what these guys did, you didn't care about being an actor. You wanted to be the best soldier you can for him," Madio said.

Perconte's service began with basic training at Toccoa, Ga. More training followed at Fort Benning, Ga., and in Alabama and Tennessee before the company shipped out to England on a Navy vessel that offered no comforts, especially not good food.

"All I ate was Hershey bars," Perconte said.

Easy Company's first look at combat was June 6, 1944, when they jumped from planes 500 feet in the air into the pre-dawn darkness above Utah Beach.

"When we got to the coast, we saw the flak coming up," Perconte said. The soldier jumping behind him was shot. "All you could see were flames and boats getting hit. You couldn't see the water, just ships."

On Jan. 13, 1945, Perconte was shot while fighting near Bastogne, Belgium. He had been hiding behind a tree, but his leg stuck out enough to catch a bullet that tore straight through it.

Perconte hasn't seen the episode in which he is hit yet, but he's heard about it. He's puzzled by the fact that the script called for him to duck behind a wheelbarrow, not a tree.

"I just can't imagine it," Perconte said.

In September 1945, Perconte, now 84, returned home to his family in Joliet, and to his job as a crane operator in Gary, Ind. Two years later, tired of the commute, he switched to a career as a mail carrier.

Evelyn, who suffers from Alzheimer's, is now at Lakewood nursing home in Plainfield. Perconte goes to Lakewood to visit her for eight or nine hours every day. His friends at the nursing home call him "Hollywood," and he laughs that all the attention is causing him to get a big head. He doesn't mind sharing his memories — new and old.

"I'll talk about it all day," he said.

Perconte knows the chances were good he wouldn't be around today to talk about it at all.

"It's a matter of luck. I could have been hit somewhere else," Perconte said.

Paige Fumo Fox may be reached at pfumofox@dailysouthtown.com or (708) 633-5965.

By mrhbocuguk (95.135.180.55) on Friday, March 12, 2010 - 04:44 am: