David Bellomo was serving with the Marines in 1969 when he was wounded in Vietnam.
“It was about 1 in the morning when we were overrun by the Viet Cong,” Bellomo remembered, showing the scars from his wounds. “I was shot in the arm and still have numbness in my right arm.
“I was lucky,” he added. “We lost two Marines. I came home with all my limbs.”
The Seneca Falls native was awarded a Purple Heart, a military award created by President George Washington to honor those who were wounded or killed in the Revolutionary War against England.
Bellomo was one of more than a hundred people attending Tuesday’s dedication of the Purple Heart Trail in front of Generations Bank headquarters on East Bayard Street. He helped unveil a covering over the trail, a paved walkway with the name, rank, branch of service and war in which the Purple Heart recipient was killed or wounded.
“It’s a nice tribute,” Bellomo said after the ceremony. “It makes me proud of Seneca Falls.”
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