Family fights for veteran honors

Arthur Barbettini was a highly decorated World War II Army veteran, but he may not be buried will full military honors with his fellow soldiers.

Barbettini, a Carson City resident for the past 29 years, died Saturday at age 89. He was originally from Switzerland and immigrated to the United States in 1937.

Although he was not yet a U.S. citizen, he entered the 126th Field Artillery Battalion in New Guinea for the U.S. Army in 1943.

Through his four years of combat in the South Pacific, Barbettini became a technical artillery sergeant and a reconnaissance patrol leader. He received his citizenship while in service. He also was awarded the Pacific Campaign Metal, the Philippine Liberation Ribbon, a Bronze Star, the Marksman Metal and a Purple Heart. Barbettini also sustained a back injury while in the service.

Prior to his service for the U.S. Army, Barbettini was a soldier for the Swiss military. Barbettini was 10 years older than most of the soldiers and because of his experience, his family said, he gained much respect from his battalion.

"Recruits wanted to go with his patrol because they would be sure to make it back," Barbettini's son-in-law Walter Sullivan said. "Because of him, a lot of young men stayed alive."

But Barbettini's origins and low military rank have caused his family difficulty in obtaining a proper military burial, a procession that would include eight flag folders, an officer, a trumpeter and seven men to conduct a 21-gun salute.

"So far I have been told we can get one or two people and a cassette tape of Taps," Sullivan said. "We haven't had any good luck."

Barbettini's daughter Celine Sullivan and her husband wrote President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., and congressional Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., pleading for a proper burial.

"He was a proud man and a hard working man like you," Sullivan wrote in her May 17 letter to the President. "He wasn't a general or an officer, just an ordinary soldier who, while not a US citizen, put his life on the line when he country needed him."

State officer for the Veterans of Foreign Affairs Mark Neder said most Nevada services are not usually as elaborate as the one Barbettini's family desires. He said most soldiers who were not high-ranking officers typically do not have more than two people conducting the burial.

The letter has not received a response. Sullivan said the burial will occur Thursday in Vallejo, Calif., at a Catholic cemetery with or without the proper military honors.