Guido F Gileno was born 24 Aug 1919, in New York City, New York, to Michael and Barbara Antonletta D'Ambrosio. He was the 2nd of 4 children born to this union. He had an older brother, and a younger brother and sister. I could find no records for either brother having served in World War II.

In the 1940 census, Guido was 20 years old and living at home with his parents and siblings, in New York City, Kings, New York. His occupation was listed as a packer in a retail store. He enlisted in the Army Air Corps on 19 Oct 1942, from New York City. At some point, he would have shipped to England, for preparation for the D-Day invasion.

From www.ww2research comes: "A Matter of Seconds - The target for June 6, 1944, was a road junction at Caen, France. The B-26 "Marauders" of the 323nd Bomb Group were on their way to Normandy. The plan called for bombing from 12,000 feet, but poor weather caused the Marauders to come down lower: much lower.The tailgunner of the crew of B-26 tail # 41-31961, Staff Sergeant George W Fobes, describes waht happened next: '. . . as we came over the French coast we were shot at by 40mm guns. The gun fire lasted about 1 minute and as we came out of it, I called each crew member and asked if they were all right. In each case they were, although the plane had been hit in the left wing. A matter of seconds we ran into more flak. We were hit in the nose, wings, and bomb bay. The plane caught on fire in the bomb bay. The pilot said 'Bail out,' Sgt. R. Findley, the cameraman was the first one to leave, I 9sic) the tail gunner was next and J. Wesran was third and last. While I was still in the air in my chute the plane hit the ground. No one but the three of us got out.'" The Pilot, Navigator (2nd Lt. Guido F Gileno), Bombardier, and the Radio Operator all perished in the crash. Guido was awarded the Purple Heart and the Air Medal. He was buried in the Brittany Cemetery and Memorial - Saint-James, Departement de la Manche, Basse-Normandie, France.

This story is part of the Stories Behind the Stars project (see www.storiesbehindthestars.org). This is a national effort of volunteers to write the stories of all 400,000+ of the US WWII fallen here on Fold3. Can you help write these stories? Related to this, there will be a smart phone app that will allow people to visit any war memorial or cemetery, scan the fallen's name and read his/her story.