Staff Sgt. Thomas Varbero has been trying to change a misprint on his discharge papers for 71 years.
Varbero, a 96-year-old World War II Army veteran, served in the military from February 1943 until February 1946, when he was honorably discharged. But upon receiving his discharge papers, he noticed that his last grade rank was listed as a private, instead of his title as a staff sergeant.
He said he brought this issue to the attention of an officer at Army Camp Beale in California. The officer informed him that he could wait at the camp for new paperwork, but that it could take up to three months to receive them.
The second option was to go home, and the new paperwork would be mailed to him. Varbero chose the latter.
“They never mailed it,” he said in an interview with the Review at his Harrison home.
Upon returning to Westchester County in 1946, Varbero, in his mid-20s at the time, wanted to focus on working and raising a family with his wife. One of his chores was also renovating his Harrison home, the home he was born and raised in. Today, the house now has six bedrooms and three baths. “My wife and I took this whole apartment out,” he said.
The walls of his refurbished home are filled with memories from his past. Some of these show him at 50 years old in Newfoundland, Canada, where he said he built five log cabins over 35 years. Other photos include Varbero on a hunting trip, gearing up for a boat trip on the lake and his old camping ground.
Tom Varbero, Varbero’s grandson, speaks fondly of the outdoor activities he participated in with his grandfather. He said that he was very close with his grandfather growing up, and that everything his grandfather did for him was to help teach him and his siblings a life lesson.
The time spent with his family helped distract Thomas Varbero from thoughts about his time in the Army.
“I didn’t care,” he said. “I wanted to forget… that experience.”
But his feelings changed in recent years as his grandchildren began asking him more about what he had done in the war. “A while back, I [started] thinking; I said, ‘I got to get this straightened out before I die,’” he said.
Varbero said the position of staff sergeant was given to him after he injured his knee in a car accident. He was told he would require surgery, and that he wouldn’t be able to fight anymore because he would need a cane to walk.
Varbero was given an opportunity to serve his country in a different way, and he became an interpreter from Italian to English. “I was more qualified because I knew five dialects,” he said.
Varbero was awarded his title as staff sergeant after beginning his work at a prisoner-of-war camp in Monticello, Arkansas.
Varbero’s granddaughter, Marlene Varbero, said that he still frequently talks about his time with the POWs. She said how even though they were prisoners, he would provide them with more food than he was supposed to.
Thomas Varbero also said that his fluency in Italian worked to his advantage when it came to learning more about the enemy. “I wanted to get into their system, to get more information that I could pass on,” he said. “I got a lot of information like that by talking their dialect.”
Varbero said that over years, he has complained that this promotion wasn’t reflected in his discharge paperwork, but to no avail.
Varbero explained that around 15 years ago is when he started to seriously pursue a resolution. He spoke to veteran affairs centers in places like Harrison, the Bronx and Castle Point in Wappingers Falls, New York. But he was directed toward Virginia, where the Army Review Board Agency, ARBA, is located.
In December 2016, he wrote to the board. In the letter, he included a copy of his discharge papers, an application for correction of military record, which allows military personnel to dispute changes to their military records, and a letter explaining his request.
Varbero wrote, “I feel my service to my country should be honored by having this correction made.”
His only concern is being able to show his family that he has earned service stripes.
His grandson, Patrick Varbero of the Harrison Police Department, said that he believes the corrected paperwork is something that his grandfather deserves.
The Army Board for Correction of Military Records, AMBCMR, is one of 14 boards under ARBA. The board oversees requests for changes of military paperwork.
But changes such as Varbero’s have been difficult to argue because of U.S. Code Title 10 Section 1552(b), which says that if a request for changed paperwork is to be made, it needs to be done within three years of noticing the error.
There have been, however, exceptions made to this rule when it is in the interest of justice.
A December 2015 court case seen by ABCMR was similar to Varbero’s situation in that Army personnel had a misprint on their discharge papers. Even though more than three years had lapsed since the person had noticed the error, the board made an exception and decided to see the case. Despite this, the court still ruled that the person didn’t provide sufficient evidence to support the claim that they ranked as a specialist grade four before being discharged from the Army. This position is above a private, and below a corporal.
The only paperwork Varbero has left from the Army are his discharge papers.
As of press time, Kat Connolly, the VA staffer at the White Plains district office for U.S. Rep. Nita Lowey, a Democrat, has been contacted, where a case file has been created for Varbero.
