Tom Mastrangelo, retired typesetter

THE LST was bobbing in the surf off Gold Beach during the Normandy invasion of World War II, offloading tanks and other heavy equipment for the Allied forces, when its anchor became stuck.

The ship was under heavy enemy fire and it couldn't stay there. There was only one thing to do. Somebody had to go into the water and free the anchor.

The dangerous task fell to Thomas J. Mastrangelo Sr. He made several dives with cutting equipment and finally got the anchor free.

It was only later that he learned that the anchor had been stuck on a live mine.

That wasn't the only close call Tom endured during service on LSTs from Africa to Italy to France from 1943 to the end of the war, but it might have been the hairiest.

Tom Mastrangelo, a retired typesetter who, unlike a lot of World War II vets, enjoyed regaling family and friends with his experiences, dining with the family, food-shopping, gardening and, as a daughter put it, living life to the fullest, died Monday. He was 84 and lived in Upper Darby.

Tom survived four invasions aboard LSTs (for Landing Ship, Tank), the lumbering craft that carried tanks and other heavy equipment to the scenes of battle, enduring shot and shell from the enemy on the beaches.

He entered the Navy in 1943 and first participated in the North African landings. By the time of the invasion of Sicily at the port of Gela in July 1943, he was aboard LST 345, which the crew had nicknamed "Bugs Bunny."

In September, the ship participated in the landings at Salerno, on the Italian mainland.

At Salerno, his LST crew participated in the rescue of British seamen trapped in a sinking ship. They rescued six and lost six, while being pounded by enemy fire.

Of the Salerno campaign, he wrote in his diary, "They were six weeks I'll never forget."

After a break in England, LST 345 joined the Allied forces invading France on D-Day, June 6. In addition to Gold Beach, the LST also took equipment to the two other beaches, Omaha and Juno, and picked up wounded GIs and prisoners.

He was a seaman first class when he was discharged in 1945.

Before enlisting, Tom had asked his father-in-law for permission to marry his daughter, Lillian Pirollo. To which the old man replied, "You go fight the war first, then come back and ask me."

Tom did as he was told, and he and Lillian were married in 1946.

His future wife wrote him every day he was overseas and he finally accumulated so many letters he couldn't possibly keep them. Quarters on the LSTs were tight.

So one day, he tossed them into the ocean. Three months later, a kind-hearted sailor who had found the letters returned them to him.

Tom was born in Philadelphia to Joseph and Jennie Mastrangelo. He didn't get much schooling because he joined the Civilian Conservation Corps.

After the war, he worked for 42 years as a typesetter in the publishing business with Central Type and the Composing Room in Philadelphia.

Tom really enjoyed his family. "Sunday dinners, everybody came," said his daughter Regina Mastrangelo. "He would be in his glory, sitting at the head of the table. He would be grinning from ear to ear."

His jokes were a little on the stale side, but no one laughed at them louder than he did.

Besides his daughter and wife, he is survived by two sons, James and John; two other daughters, Maria Artmont and Denise Rogo; a brother, Joseph; two sisters, Betty Cavallaro and Mary Mastrangelo; 10 grandchildren, and 10 great-grandchildren.

Services: Funeral Mass 11 a.m. Friday at St. Laurence Church, 8245 West Chester Pike, Upper Darby. Friends may call at 8:30 a.m. at the Robert L. D'Anjolell Memorial Home, 2811 West Chester Pike, Broomall. Burial will be in Ss. Peter and Paul Cemetery, Marple.

Donations may be made to Disabled Veterans, Box 143, Cincinnati OH 45250-0301. *