By Joe Wessels
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Mr. Caminiti

WESTWOOD - Not just any person can face a line of German tanks and live to tell about it.

But that's what happened to James C. Caminiti of Westwood during World War II. He earned the Silver Star and a citation from the Army's commanding general to prove it. Even so, humility might have been his greatest strength.

"He just wouldn't talk about (being a soldier)," said his daughter, Nancy Miller, 57, of Delhi Township. "As I was growing up he didn't talk about it much. I would say that most of his nieces and nephews didn't know he was a war hero."

Mr. Caminiti, 83, died Oct. 19 from lung complications.

According to an account printed in the Cincinnati Post during the war, Mr. Caminiti and his fellow soldiers "stood toe-to-toe with 13 German tanks the day Italy was invaded and saved an entire American beachhead from annihilation."

Despite his hero status, Mr. Caminiti kept things light. Known for his generous heart and his subtle sense of humor, his trademark was how he tilted his hat in every photograph.

"He was goofy and I guess (his hat tilted) was part of his goofiness," his daughter said, showing his official military photograph, hat cockeyed.

Mr. Caminiti never finished high school. He was forced to drop out and take a job to help his parents, who had seven other children. Mr. Caminiti was the oldest.

He worked most of his life in local produce markets.

"What I kept hearing (after he died) was he worked harder than anyone, they said he even worked harder than the kids," Miller said.

After Mr. Caminiti's wife, Cecilia, died in 1988, he grew closer to the couple's only daughter, bringing her lunch every day for 10 years at the department store where she worked.

In addition to his daughter, survivors include two brothers, Joe Angelo Caminiti and Tony Caminiti, both of Westwood; two sisters, Marie Heuer of Westwood and Anna May Trumble of Florence, and two grandchildren.

Services have been held.