When George Mather, of Raynham, displays on his shut friendship with Paul Posti, a private chef for Frank Sinatra, a prevailing thought involves thoughts.
“The most notable thing to me was he was a great Patriot,” Mather mentioned of Posti throughout an interview with the Herald. “He loved this country … defended this country.”
Posti, a North Finish native, boasted a adorned profession as a chef, cooking for a few of the hottest singers and actors in historical past. Mather, nevertheless, factors to how his pal turned a “famous war hero” in World Struggle II.
Whereas in fight as a B-17 Flying Fortress tail gunner, Posti shot down a German Flocke-Wolfe fighter airplane with a Smith and Wesson, 38-caliber service revolver, in 1942. He obtained the gun from his father who was a member of Boston mob, The Black Hand.
The feat was the one kill of its form in World Struggle II and has not been repeated since, serving to Posti earn a Silver Star, the nation’s third-highest ornament for heroism, the Air Drive newsroom reported in 2003 after his household donated the gun to the Air Drive Museum in Ohio. Posti accomplished a full tour and was stationed at Royal Air Drive Base Polebrook in England.
“Officials disputed the achievement until a few days later when Capt. Clark Gable presented proof of the kill,” the Air Drive newsroom reported. “Gable, who left his movie career to become an aerial photographer with the U.S. Army Air Force, took Posti into a darkroom and ran off a strip of movie film. The captain had operated a gun camera aboard another bomber during the mission and filmed the German plane in its death dive.”
Posti died at age 89 in 2002.
The intriguing and dynamic life that Posti had compelled Mather and his spouse, Sharon, to write down a memoir on their pal. An up to date model of “POSTI: War Hero, Hollywood Insider, Chef to celebrities, and Redemption” was simply revealed earlier this month.
“Posti was part of the greatest generation,” Mather wrote within the memoir’s introduction part. “He found it difficult to adjust to and keep up with an age where information moves at nearly the speed of light. His remaining years were physically limiting, to be sure, but the magnanimity of his heart and soul along with his robust strength of character never waned or weakened.”
Mather, born in Brockton, served as a pastor at a lutheran church in Sherman Oaks, Calif., a neighborhood of Los Angeles that borders Hollywood and Van Nuys. There, he met Posti “one Sunday morning back … in 1993 at the close of an ordinary church service.”
At that second, Mather mentioned he thought Posti could have been “looking for answers to life.”
“He immediately took to us because he was raised in the North End,” Mather mentioned of when he met Posti and launched his spouse. “He recognized my Boston (accent) so we hit it off.”
Mather mentioned he discovered the primary dialog they needed to be “super interesting,” along with his spouse highlighting how her father served within the Military Air Forces. Posti then took off his glasses and tapped the rim on his eye.
Posti misplaced one eye when shrapnel exploded out the best waist gun place, in line with the American Air Museum.
Posti, born in Walpole, lived within the North Finish till the age 13 when his father despatched him to Italy so he may start his culinary coaching beneath George Escoffier, who was often called “the greatest chef who ever lived.”
Mather and his spouse visited Posti each Monday night time at his home in Van Nuys, Calif., the place he gave the couple non-public cooking classes that might grow to be dinner. They’d bond about their Massachusetts ties over Italian espresso and biscotti, Mather recalled.
“He loved to talk about Boston, the North End, St. Joseph’s Day when they had the parade,” Mather mentioned of Posti. “He loved Cape Cod.”
All through his spectacular culinary profession, Posti turned govt chef to Clark Gable, Elvis Presley, Pavarotti and Frank Sinatra, who he cooked for for greater than 24 years. Posti even co-invented the Cobb Salad – “to please a demanding Cecil B. DeMille (widely recognized as a founding father of American cinema),” a abstract for the memoir states
“Paul Posti was very protective of his relationships with well-known celebrities,” Mather mentioned. “He felt that to do things for his own advantage would betray his friendship with them. If I had asked him to introduce me to Frank Sinatra, he would cease being friends, he would have perceived me as trying to use him to get to see Frank Sinatra.”
