Gaetano C. "Tommy" Abbatiello was born in Yonkers, New York on 2 January 1915. He was the son of James and Lucia Grimaldo Abbatiello.  He attended Sacred Heart Parochial School.  Tommy was a flying enthusiast who won prizes as a teenager for his model airplanes.  In 1940, he received his private pilot’s license.  He worked as a barber in his father's shop on Lake Avenue in Yonkers and was known as "the flying barber of Lake Avenue.” He enlisted in the U. S. Army Air Corps in Jamaica, New York on 31 March 1941.  He served in the 368th Bomber Squadron of the 306th Bomber Group and was the ball turret gunner on the B-17 # 42-32113.  On 24 May 1944 he was Killed in Action when his bomber was shot down over Germany.   He was 29 years old.
Information from the Herald Statesman of 9 June 1944 p3, and 26 December 1944 p.1 and 11, courtesy of Erwin Derhaag.