The great-niece of Ambrose Regalia, a Purple Heart recipient and name of the Pleasanton VFW post, is attempting to get his taken tags back.
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PLEASANTON, CA — The dog tags hanging from the rear view mirror of Katie Regalia’s car might not have actually had much financial worth, which is why she questions why anybody troubled to break in and take them.
But their psychological worth is huge, which is why she’s attempting whatever she can consider to get them back.
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Regalia, 26, had the tags because she was 12 years of ages. They came from her great-uncle, Ambrose Regalia, a Pleasanton native and Amador Valley High School graduate who was an anti-aircraft gunner and the city’s very first casualty of World War II.
Before he was killed in a Japanese Navy attack at Alaska’s Dutch Harbor in 1942 at simply 22 years of ages, he was a well known basketball and baseball star who was even prepared to bet the Brooklyn Dodgers. When he left for the army, about 150 Pleasanton homeowners collected to send him off. He was posthumously granted a Purple Heart, which Regalia’s uncle still keeps.
The Ambrose D. Regalia Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 6298 was established in 1946 and still stands in Pleasanton today. Regalia Court, simply off Vineyard Avenue near First Street, is likewise called for him.
Ambrose is buried in the St. Augustine Catholic Cemetery, and Katie made lots of journeys there over her youth to pay her aspects and to visit her grandparents.
Katie said she showed his tags in her car to inspire herself. “I had them pretty much for every game, every interview, everything I’d ever been on, and I had them in my car as a reminder to work hard and accomplish the things he wasn’t able to do,” she informed Patch. “It gave me that little reminder that he’s with you, he’s been through hard times too, you can do this, just keep working.”
Someone took the tags out of her Jeep Cherokee last Thursday in San Francisco’s Mission District. A house fire several years ago destroyed the majority of the pictures of him, so they were a few of the family’s only staying keepsakes.
Katie put fliers all over the neighborhood providing a $500 benefit, no concerns asked. She likewise went to the San Francisco Police Department, who supposedly informed her that due to the fact that there were no witnesses, they wouldn’t check out it.
Regalia, who matured in the Mission District, said she’s observed a significant boost in car burglaries over the previous couple of years. “I would say it’s gotten exceptionally worse in that they take anything and everything, whereas before they would break into your car if they saw something. Now every car is broken into pretty much for no reason at all, and things are taken that have no value,” she said.
Still, Regalia has actually been moved by all the assistance she’s received, especially after ABC7 connected to publish a story. In a weird method, she is likewise pleased with how connected she grew to them.
“At the end of the day, I’m grateful my family is so devastated for losing this, because it shows how proud we were of our family and our history, so at the end of the day, because I feel so devastated it’s a reminder of how proud I am of where I came from,” she said.
No one can take that pride away.
Anyone with details on the tags can get in touch with the family at 415-967-8254, or email [email protected].
