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  Do you think The Last Farewell would make a wonderful, romantic movie?

Quite honestly, so do we!   So, Hollywood, are you listening? Read more

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By Edmund Burke O’Connell

Co-authored by Julie Whitman Jones and Thomas J. Sullivan, Jr.

 

Purchase either a signed hardcover or paperback copy of The Last Farewell directly from the authors.


  ISBN: 978-1-4257-4186-0

(Trade Paperback)


ISBN: 978-1-4257-4187-7

(Hardback)
  Pages: 275

 

 

The Last Farewell, a posthumous wartime memoir set against the rich, colorful landscape of historic Florence and Northern Italy, tenderly recalls one soldier’s love story through the viewfinder of a still and motion picture camera during the Italian campaign of the Second World War.

An unlikely luncheon date during a lull in the summer 1944 liberation of Florence leads Edmund Burke O’Connell, an Army motion picture photographer with the U.S. Army's 196th Signal Photo Company to meet an attractive English-speaking Florentine, Tina Calamai. Their friendship steadily blossoms into love as her family’s 15th century Medici villa, the Villa Calamai, becomes his wartime base of operations.

The end of the war in Europe soon draws near and Burke and his unit prepare for redeployment to the United States where they will film the remaining months of the Pacific War. Burke faces immediate separation from his beloved Tina, and is challenged to determine how he can return to the woman he now truly loves.

O’Connell does return to Italy at war’s end to resume his relationship with Tina, marry her, and remain at their Villa Calamai home until her death in 1972.

Burke’s return to the U.S. in 1972 for the first time in 25 years to Santa Monica, California, soon leads to a whirlwind romance, a new second marriage, and introduces co-author Julie Whitman Jones, then 15,  to a her “Irish pop” a stepfather who would leave her with a lifetime of cherished memories.

The Last Farewell balances bittersweet recollections of close calls in combat, Divine intervention, and the grim realities of combat against the unique opportunities of American military photographers to capture and experience the rich cultural history of Italy during wartime.

We invite you to read a sample chapter: A Beautiful Stranger

 

 

Thank you for signing our guestbook today. We are honored to share this very special love story with you.

 

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The co-authors tell the overall operations history of both the 196th Signal Photo Company (SPC) and the 3131st Signal Service Company for the first time in The Last Farewell - A Journey of the Heart. Photographers, Burke O'Connell, John T. Mason, and Donald Wiedenmayer crossed paths during Operation Torch, the 1942 Allied invasion of North Africa and in Italian Campaign. The 3131st was reorganized to form the 196th SPC in early 1945. Veterans and their families are actively encouraged to email the authors to share information and photographs. Special thanks to Don Wiedenmayer for providing unit rosters, copies of wartime orders and essential historical detail.

 

196th Signal Photo Company - Still Photo Gallery

Known Army Signal Corps photographs attributed by Signal Corps serial number to individual members of the 3131st Signal Service Company and the 196th Signal Photo Company, Italian Campaign, 1944-1945.

A-F / G-L / M-R / S-Z

Selected wartime photos of

John T. Mason / Donald Wiedenmayer

 

Home

Site Map

Index to Special Pages

Po Valley DVD / Battle for Bologna

PDF Reference Materials (Orders and Official Documents)

196th SPC Roll of Honor / Unit History / 196th - Campaign for Sicily

Motion Picture Coverage / Still Photo Coverage

Photo Gallery / Bibliography / Veteran's History Project / Nauders Crossroads /

Harry Morgan / Cecil "Max"Campbell / Army Pictorial Service - North Africa

 

 

© The Last Farewell - A journey of the heart

By Edmund Burke O'Connell and co-authors Julie Whitman Jones and Thomas J. Sullivan, Jr.

email the authors: the_last_farewell@mail.com

Updated: 3/3/08

 

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