Private First Class Louis J. Muccioli / US Army
Private First Class Rose Marie Muccioli / US Marine Corps

“You have never seen a prouder American than my mother” was the first thing her daughter, Denise Muccioli, said to me as we began our interview for this piece. “She was proud to be an American and even prouder of her time in the Marines. Whenever she met someone new, the first thing she would tell them was that she was a Marine.”

She was born Rose Marie Mazzola in Boston, the first generation of her family born in the US. Her father was an immigrant from Italy.

Like many former service members Rose rarely talked about her service and what she did… outside of telling everyone she was a Marine. Her daughter, Denise, was able to uncover some of her service records. They said that she joined the Marines on April 8, 1953 and was to serve for three years. As best as could be determined, she was assigned to the “2nd Infantry” but that was all we could discern about her outfit and there is no detail as to what her Military Occupational Specialty was.

Rose spoke of training, and learning how to use a gas mask. One story she told was of being assigned to jump out of a plane (paratrooper?) but she was so sick the morning of the jump she never made it.

At some point, she was assigned to Camp Lejeune, NC. It is unknown how much time she spent there but her health was never the same after that. She was constantly plagued with one malady or another.

Louis J. Muccioli, Denise’s father, was born in Watertown, MA. He entered the US Army on December 27, 1945, and was assigned to the 26th Infantry Regiment – 1st Division and became a marksman with a .30 caliber rifle. After basic training, he was shipped off to Germany where he served guard duty for a contingent of German POWs. Muccioli noted that the Germans he was guarding were all higher-ranking officers. They were always bumming cigarettes from him. Once he found out who they were, he started trading cigarettes for autographs. He returned from Germany with a good number of autographs and squirreled them away. Later, Rose sold them to a collector. His daughter, Denise, found the copies and threw them away with the thought that nobody needed to be reminded of the terrible things they had done.

Louis and Rose were married on January 17, 1954 and moved to Nashua around 1968. For 25 years, Louis worked as a quality inspector at Bellofram Corporation in Burlington, MA, makers of pressure regulators, thermometers, and gauges. Daughter Denise noted, “He was a good father and always made sure my mother and the four kids were cared for. There were times when he would go out in the morning to go to work and the car wouldn’t start. So, he would hitchhike to work.” Louis died of cancer in 1980.

In her waning years, Rose was still telling people she was in the Marines, and that she was now a Colonel. Daughter Denise noted, “At that point, there was no point in arguing with her. So, we went along with it.”

Denise bought her mother a little stuffed teddy bear dressed in a Marie uniform. She said, “Mom loved that cute little bear. When you pushed a button, it played the Marines’ Hymn. It was the last thing she heard before she passed.”