Neri De Benedetti was my godfather and present when I was baptized in a Catholic Church in Rome during the winter of 1949.
Neri was also my Dad’s greatest friend until the very end and loved my Dad unselfishly as I was witness to quite often. He also loved our family and would have done anything to help us.
My godfather was a unique, fearless and very brave man.
He was also one of the most sensitive men you will ever find as when he went to talk to my future wife in a moment when she felt uncomfortable among some strangers.
Neri was born in Rome, the same year as my Dad, in 1917, and they had met in the United States in the Italian POW camp. They spend much time there talking and became the best of friends.
Neri De Benedetti already had a private pilot license when Italy got into WW II. He soon entered the Italian air force as a fighter pilot becoming a second lieutenant.
On 28 October 1940 at Al-Berka in Lybia Neri got sick while rapidly descending to land and his Fiat aircraft overturned but he got out of the aircraft alive by the skin of his teeth.
A very bold and skillful biplane pilot by the time of his capture Neri De Benedetti had become an ace. Highly decorated for his bravery and efforts during the war he never boasted about anything he had achieved.
He was severely wounded and shot down in a dog fight during the battle for Malta and floated in the Mediterranean Sea for many hours until he was eventually picked up by the British and then transferred to the Americans.
After the war he became an entrepreneur and actually a very good friend of several Germans that also were WWII veterans. Together they negotiated and set up the sale of specialized arms to help build the European defensive system to protect Europe from the Eastern bloc countries that at the time were amassing a vast supply of military materiel and soldiers on the Western front of Europe.
Neri also became the friend of many in the US military and was used as a mediator because he spoke perfect American English.
My godfather died in May 1999. Unfortunately I was not able to attend his funeral because we were living in the United States at that time and did not find out about his death until much later.