AUBURN - The Military Order of the Purple Heart has 18 chapters throughout the state, but would like one more to help serve the Purple Heart recipients that live in the area.

Carmelo Signorelli, a life-long Auburn resident who received the Purple Heart during World War II, was asked by MOPH, the only Congressionally chartered veterans organization exclusively for combat-wounded veterans, to find out if there is sufficient interest in forming a local chapter.

Rick Weeks, department adjutant for MOPH, said about 1,900 of the 10,000 Purple Heart recipients in the state are members of MOPH. He said the 18 chapters are scattered throughout the state, including Buffalo, Niagara Falls, Rochester, Albany, Newburgh and five in the New York City area.

But there is just one in Central New York.

"There's one in Syracuse, which is the largest chapter, but it also takes in a lot of outlying areas where people can't make meetings, such as Auburn," Weeks said. "We're scattered out and with Carmelo wanting to open one in Auburn, at least then members can have an active chapter."

A few years ago, Signorelli received information about MOPH in the mail, so he joined. Even though he's been a member of other veterans groups and clubs since the service, he only recently joined MOPH.

Weeks said that since there are about seven people in the Auburn area that belong to other MOPH chapters, maybe it was time to form a chapter in Auburn in order to save the Purple Heart honorees a trip to Syracuse or Rochester for meetings.

Signorelli was drafted into the U.S. Army Aircorp as a photographer, but then he received an opportunity to go to college on behalf of the service. After a couple of years, the military changed his orders.

"Congress decided that they needed front-line troops more than they needed college boys," Signorelli said. "There were 400 of us at Ball State and they sent all 400 of us down to Camp Swift, Texas, 102nd Infantry Division."

Following the training, they filled out all the front-line company vacancies the division had. After a short stay in England, his division was sent to Germany to fight the then-strong German army.

"The opposition that we ran into was so intense that we had to stop and dig in," he said. "And then it began raining. We dug our holes in the rain. The next morning, we received the word that we were going to attack after an artillery barrage."

Then the artillery barrage came, much of it in close proximately to the division troops.

On Thanksgiving Day, 1944, Signorelli's life changed forever.

"When it stopped, we got out of our holes and started moving forward," he said. "Some guys never got out of their holes. They were scared stiff - frozen with fear with what they went through the previous day. About 8 o'clock in the morning, that's when this explosion came and threw three of us up in the air."

Signorelli, although injured, tried to get up, but collapsed.

"I guess because I lost so much blood," he said. "They had to put me on a stretcher. That ended my combat experience, at least for a few months."

He spent the next few months in military hospitals Holland, Belgium, France and England. That did not stop Signorelli from returning to war.

While recovering, an officer he doesn't remember came to him and told him of the Purple Heart.

"He came around one day and handed me a piece of paper and said 'We're awarding you the Purple Heart,'" he said.

With another medal on his chest and somewhat recovered from the artillery blast, Signorelli returned to the combat zone.

But the Germany he returned to was far different from the one he left. The Allies, including Russia, had systematically destroyed the Axis powers during his time in the hospital.

"We were really zooming across Germany pretty fast," he said.

"In Krafeld, we started the dash across Germany. Before then, you were fighting for every foot. We were in trucks most of the time now."

Once at the Elbe River, the division stopped and waited for Russia soldiers to make their way to the river.

"We had our last action right on the banks of the Elbe River, where we stopped and waited for the Russians," he said.

Three weeks later, Russian soldiers arrived.

The war in Europe officially ended on May 8th, on the banks of the Elbe River.

Any Purple Heart recipients interested in forming a local chapter of MOPH, call Weeks at 518-486-1735 or Signorelli at 252-4400.

A minimum of 10 members would be required to start the local chapter.