Dominick Critelli, a 102-year-old Floral Park veteran, will be flying to New Orleans this week to the National World War II Museum.

The trip is part of the Gary Sinise Foundation’s Soaring Valor Program, where 18 total veterans and 38 high school participants will tour the museum and document their stories with historians. 

“It’s my first time going down there,” Citrelli, who has lived in the village since 1956, said on a phone call with Blank Slate Media. “I’m very excited.” 

The Gary Sinise Foundation was founded in 2011 by actor and humanitarian of the same name. The program’s inspiration comes from Sinise’s connection with his uncle, Jack, who served in the Air Force as a navigator on B17 bombers, according to the foundation.

Born April 8, 1921, in Italy, Critelli immigrated when he was 8 years old. In 1944, he was a member of the Army Air Corps 95th Infantry Division, part of the 377th Infantry Regiment in the Artillery Aviation Liaison Unit. His deployment in Europe found him in the Battle of the Bulge in Belgium, one of Adolf Hitler’s last German offensive campaigns, rescuing American soldiers along with his unit. 

For these efforts Critelli was awarded three Bronze Stars, the American Theater Medal, the WWII Victory Medal, Good Conduct Medal and the Air Medal. 

When he returned to the States, Critelli went to college and became a teacher for 20 years. He completed his undergraduate degree from what was previously called the CCNY Engineering School, now the Grove School of Engineering. At New York University, he earned a graduate degree in education before teaching industrial arts and other subjects in Brooklyn. 

On top of his profession as an educator, Critelli’s passion also lies in music. A talented saxophonist, he holds a music degree from Five Towns College in Dix Hills and has been involved in bands and orchestras playing swing music since his days in the Army, including his own “Dominick Critelli and the Sound of Music Orchestra.”

During his time as a teacher, Critelli and a partner owned a construction business that built multiple houses in Floral Park and surrounding villages, he said. 

In 2021, Citrelli traveled to Washington, D.C., to visit the World War II Memorial, Arlington National Cemetery and the Iwo Jima Memorial with the Honor Flight Network, an organization dedicated to flying veterans spanning previous generations to the nation’s capital.