Technician 4th. Grade Nicholas Viscardi: 3rd. Armored Division

     Sometime in 1943, Nicholas Viscardi enlisted in the U.S. Army and following his induction training, he was posted to the newly formed 66th. Infantry Division under the command of Major-General Herman F. Kramer. So new was the unit that it had no distinctive insignia and Kramer authorized a competition among the division for a design. Private Viscardi’s snarling black panther drawing won and the image became the unit’s official patch, thus creating the division’s nickname, the “Black Panther Division.” Impressed with Viscardi’s artistic talents, Kramer had orders cut to assign Viscardi to the division’s headquarters staff where he would often do portraits of the officers and their wives. 

     This new posting, however, did not last and another high ranking officer became enamored with Viscardi’s work and requested that he be transferred to the 3rd. Armored Division. As the only available position in the unit was in the motor pool and at a higher rank than Viscardi was, it earned him a promotion to Corporal and a new posting to the 3rd. Armored Division’s Service Company. 

     In September 1943, the 3rd. Armored Division was deployed to Europe as part of the 1st. Army under General Courtney Hicks Hodges. There, it saw significant action as well as suffered equally significant casualties. So much so that Viscardi was pulled from the Service Company and became an assistant driver/bow gunner of a M4 Sherman tank in one of the division’s two armored regiments (the 32nd. or 33rd.). Viscardi would see action in many of the major engagements to include the Battle of the Bulge, the crossing of the Rhine into Cologne, and the Battle of Dessau. During the combat to take Cologne, the turret of Viscardi’s tank was struck by a Panzerschreck round which decapitated the tank’s commander. Viscardi would receive two Purple Hearts for being wounded in action during the course of the war. Over 10,500 Purple Hearts were awarded to personnel of the 3rd. Armored Division. Following VE-Day, Viscardi was sent to France to work in the Army’s Information and Education office. Viscardi would be discharged from the Army late in 1945, having attained the final rank of Technician 4th. Grade (T/4). 

     Known more by his pen name Nick Cardi, he would be remembered by comics fans for his work at DC Comics on such characters as Aquaman, the Teen Titans, and the gunslinger “Bat” Lash. 

     Viscardi died in November 2013 at the age of 93.