The Italians were well treated. Think Hogan\u2019s Heroes<\/em> if Andy Griffith ran a camp in Mayberry. Mario Mussa was part of this group of POWs at Camp Ross, dubbed the Italian Service Unit. Before he was captured, Mario was a tank driver for the Italian army. In each tank there were two drivers, one who drove forward and one who drove backward. Mario was the latter and he always joked that he did a lot of driving. Once at Camp Ross, Mario drove a command car, which meant he finally got to drive forward. His main job was driving the colonel to and from camp each day. This gave him a lot of free time and he wrote his own trip tickets.<\/p>\n The Italians were given a lot of freedom, and they could even leave camp with an Italian-American soldier who would act as an interpreter. The Italians would also take liberties. Rumor has it that Mario would often smuggle his friends out in the trunk for dances. Their uniforms were practically identical to the Americans, except for a small badge that said Italy on the arm that the men would fix so it could be easily removed.<\/p>\n Miranda Mussa and Miranda and Mario met in 1944 at her sister\u2019s house in Lomita on their way to an Italian party in Los Angeles. They were engaged within a year. Camp Ross closed in January 1946 and most of the Italian POWs were sent back to Italy, including Mario. This left the young couple in a lurch.<\/p>\n Miranda made the decision to follow her love across the globe to Turin, Italy, alone. She\u2019d never traveled alone before, but Miranda was determined to be reunited with Mario and nothing was going to stop her, not even a strike in New York City.<\/p>\n After a brief delay, Miranda boarded a passenger ship bound for Europe. Mario and Miranda were married in December 1946. A year later, the young couple returned to the states aboard a merchant ship, headed for their new life together in San Pedro.<\/p>\n Mario worked as a longshoremen and Miranda went to work at the Long Beach Naval Hospital. They had two children, Paul and Carla. Carla eventually went on to work at Harbor College, spending most of her career on the former grounds of Camp Ross. Harbor College is where I met and befriended Miranda\u2019s granddaughters, Casey and Caitlin.<\/p>\n They have all become my family. While the pain of Miranda\u2019s loss is great, her family is comforted by the thought that she and Mario are now reunited once again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A couple of years ago, I had the opportunity to be an elder buddy to my friend\u2019s grandmother, Miranda Mussa. It seemed like a win-win situation \u2013 Miranda would get out twice […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":4055,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n![\"Photo](\"https:\/\/sanpedrotoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/san-pedro-today-19-02-feature-miranda-mussa-02-300x263.jpg\")
Mario on their wedding day. (Photo courtesy Mussa family)<\/p><\/div>\n