Local History: Millville airfield honors World War II pilot
Doug Fuhrmann, The Daily Journal
Bernie Borelli once said that flying was one of his childhood dreams that came true.
Yet, despite flying a total of 99 missions over Europe during his tours of duty as a fighter pilot, the Malaga resident who died Nov. 20, 2003 at age 82, was reluctant to talk about his days in combat.
Although barely out of their teens at the time, what they did during World War II, Borelli and his fellow fighter pilots at the Millville Army Airfield Museum insisted, was merely their job.
They got up in the morning, got dressed, strapped on their parachutes and went to work.
Some made it home. Others didn't. Borelli was one of the lucky ones.
Just 20 when he joined the Army Air Corps shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor, he trained in the southeastern section of the country before earning his wings and being sent to England in 1943.
By 1945, after two tours flying P-47 Thunderbolts and P-51 Mustangs, Borelli found himself back in the states, serving as a combat instructor and base personal affairs officer at the Millville airfield.
He went on to marry and raise a family, retiring a lieutenant colonel after a 25-year military career.
In 2000, he was honored for his outstanding military service by the Millville Army Airfield Museum, where he had also served as a past president.
At the time, Borelli told The Daily Journal that there was no way to verbalize his war experiences.
During an interview at the museum, other members came and went, nodding in agreement and joining in the conversation for a time.
Even with their own families, they said, it was difficult to relive those days.
As Borelli said a few years before his death, "Telling it doesn't actually compare to experiencing it."
But, when reporters and visitors were not around, and the vets were left alone at the museum, the stories would begin to flow.
"Sometimes," Borelli had said, "I feel more at home here than I do anywhere else."