Maj. Angelo Michael Talarico was born in Duluth in 1923 and graduated from Denfeld High School in 1942. He took his pre-flight training at Duluth’s Williamson Johnson Municipal Airport. He enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps in 1943 and took his training to become a Marine Corps aviator at Pasco Washington and Corpus Christi, Texas.
Talarico was awarded his “Wings of Gold” and served as a ferrying pilot from January to August 1945 at San Pedro Island, known as Terminal Island. Bud flew almost every single-engine aircraft in the Marine inventory. He was assigned to the aircraft carrier USS Badoeng Strait (CVE-116) in 1946 as a F4U-4 Corsair pilot.
On one particular training mission he walked away unscathed after a crash landing on April 2, 1946. The carrier’s barrier net had to be deployed. He was discharged in 1947 and reactivated for the Korean War. He flew the F2H-2 Banshee jet fighter and was very proud of his 66 jet carrier landings. State-side assignments were at Cherry Point, N.C., and El Toro, Calif.
After the Korean War he remained in the Marine Corps Reserves. His total military service was 16 years and his highest rank attained was major. From 1956-79 he flew helicopters for Chicago Helicopter Airways in Glenview, Ill. Bud Talarico lives at the Pines III in Duluth. Semper Fidelis, Bud.
Submitted by Alvin D. Grady in Hermantown.
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