Louis Nicastro isn't exactly haunted by his World War II experiences, but they form a part of him in the same way that he is defined by his wife, two children and years of teaching in Youngstown.

The former Farrell man, 79, carries the memories of three years in the Army. But along with the glory of liberating towns under Nazi control and helping defeat the Axis powers in Europe, he also holds the heartbreak of close friends and fellow soldiers who were killed.

He sadly recalled Pvt. Anthony Shumski, who died in a truck crash four days after the war ended in Europe, and Staff Sgt. Walter Littleton, who was cut down by German fire while reorganizing three Dutch patriots who became confused by it. Littleton's family accepted his Distinguished Service Cross.

But the man whose memory has most terribly stuck with Nicastro is Staff Sgt. Philip Abrahamson of Omaha.

Abrahamson trained Nicastro and other Shenango Valley men, and was Nicastro's supervisor in the 125th Cavalry Reconnaissance Unit as well as a close friend.

"We were a small outfit," said Nicastro, who lives in his hometown of Niles, Ohio. "Reconnaissance outfits were not big outfits."

In military vehicles or on foot, cavalrymen preceded the infantry and artillery into an area, scouting for the enemy. They held their positions if they could, directed artillery fire and called up supplies.

Nicastro, a 1940 graduate of Farrell High School, operated the radio in an armored car. Abrahamson was in charge of radio operators.

On an early autumn day in 1944, the 125th was at the border of the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium. Chief Warrant Officer Gordon Parks received an order to send a party into Isenbruch, Germany, to look for enemy activity. Abrahamson and three others in an armored car were assigned the duty.

The party saw no German troops or other activity, but the higher ups were insistent that they go down a particular road.

"Abrahamson told Officer Parks that they heard the road was mined," Nicastro said. "Gordon Parks said he has orders to have somebody go down that road and see if there's any enemy activity. On Oct. 3, those four soldiers go down the road and hit a land mine. It exploded directly under Sgt. Abrahamson and killed him."

Nicastro, the father of two and grandfather of two, did not know the full story until he asked Parks about it about 10 years ago at a cavalry reunion.

Parks added that Abrahamson had told him, "Gordon, I don't think I'm going to be going home."

Parks also said Abrahamson was buried in Margraten (Netherlands) Cemetery, about five miles from Isenbruch.

"Since that day, I felt I wanted to go and visit that grave," said Nicastro, whose Italian-born father, Lorenzo, had a shoe repair business in Farrell for 50 years.

His desire to visit Margraten was intensified when he talked to Harold Abrahamson, Philip Abrahamson's cousin.

Nicastro's brother, Pat, of Brookfield, a World War II Air Force veteran, searched the Internet and turned up a number of people with the name of Abrahamson. Nicastro knew that Philip's father was named Harold, so he called that Omaha number first.

The former high school and college business teacher called finding a relative of Philip Abrahamson a "big surprise," but was more surprised to learn that Harold Abrahamson did not know where his cousin was buried.

Harold Abrahamson was excited to learn the location.

"For 57 years, they did not know," Nicastro said. "If Philip's parents knew, they didn't say anything."

The rest of Abrahamson's family had died.

"He was choked up, I was choked up and I told him I was going to go to Margraten," Nicastro said.

Harold Abrahamson asked Nicastro to take pictures of his cousin's grave and place a wreath on it.

Nicastro, who arranges tours to Europe, Japan and China for Plaza Travel, Hermitage, had been to Europe on many occasions but never felt he had the time to visit the towns he had been to with the Army.

Fittingly, he chose a tour of Europe with the Pilgrimage Choir of New Castle as the springboard to make his pilgrimage to Margraten.

Nicastro, a baritone who also sings with the Youngstown Symphony Chorus and Seraphim Chorus, Youngstown, joined the Pilgrimage Choir about two years ago. It performs religious, contemporary and '50s music.

The choir arrived in Budapest June 25 and left for home July 7 from Lucerne, Switzerland. Nicastro went by train from Lucerne to Heerlen, Netherlands, where his host, Arno Lassoe, lived.

Nicastro met Lassoe at a cavalry reunion.

"This man was not born when the 125th Cavalry liberated Heerlen and other border towns," Nicastro said of Lassoe. "He took it upon himself to be our historian."

Lassoe, who also is historian for the 113th Cavalry, shows deep gratitude for the American liberators.

"This man, at his own expense, places flowers on the graves," of cavalry members, Nicastro said. "I think there are 140 graves at Margraten and Henri Chapelle, Belgium, Cemetery."

Nicastro asked Lassoe why he goes to the trouble. "He answered, 'Just look what you did for us.' He can't do enough for us."

Such feelings are common among Lassoe's countrymen. Nicastro met a man who, at age 10, was forced by the Nazis to dig their foxholes for battle, putting him in the line of fire.

"You can see how grateful they are," Nicastro said. "They are beautiful people."

Wearing a cap from Farrell American Legion Post 160, of which his father was a charter member, Nicastro visited Margraten with its rows and rows of crosses marking the graves, interrupted by the occasional Star of David to designate a Jewish soldier. The cemetery holds 8,302 bodies, including four Army nurses, and 1,722 names are listed on the wall of missing.

Nicastro placed flowers on the graves of Abrahamson and Shumski, and at the base of the wall of missing, underneath the name of Staff Sgt. Paul Smith.

Aside from placing the wreath on Abrahamson's grave, Nicastro picked grass from the site to send to Harold Abrahamson.

"This was very, very emotional for me," Nicastro said.

At Chapelle, he placed flowers on the graves of Littleton and Cpl. Francis McNeish, who left an odd impression on Nicastro and Sam Stanovich, also from Farrell, for his nightly prayers while they were in training at Fort Hood, Texas.

"We thought that was a little unusual," Nicastro said of McNeish's prayers. "He's buried in Henri Chapelle, next to his brother."

There were others from his unit buried in the cemeteries. "I didn't have time to visit them all," said Nicastro, who spent three days in the Netherlands.

Lassoe arranged for a meeting with the mayor of Gulpen, which was the first town Nicastro's unit liberated. The mayor presented Nicastro with a plate with six figures that symbolizes the unity of the United States and the Netherlands.

He also met the mayor of Simpleveld, Netherlands, the second town the unit liberated.

Nicastro said the pilgrimage gave him a sense of what the people of the Netherlands went through during four years of Nazi control. The memory of the occupation has been passed down through the generations to people like Lassoe, who has vowed to make sure his children understand what his parents went through.

"We're so lucky here, but I don't think we think of that," said Nicastro, whose middle name, Marney, was his father's way of saying thanks to God for letting him survive the second battle of the Marne in World War I.

Nicastro tried to give students a sense of what they have to be thankful for when he spoke at Middlefield (Ohio) High School on Memorial Day. He said he told the students, "Just stop for a second and say thanks. I think that's all the veterans are asking for."

He also encourages veterans to return to their battle zones.

"Pay your respects," he said.

jpinchot@sharon-herald.com