Bentley Kassal

Bentley Kassal (February 28, 1917 – December 16, 2019) was an attorney and litigation counsel with Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom in New York City.

He was a New York State Assemblyman, a judge of the New York State Courts at every level, and a World War II veteran.

Kassal was born in the Harlem area of Manhattan, New York City, on February 28, 1917, to Pauline Nirenberg Kassal and Hyman Kassal, born in Poland and Austria, respectively.

Kassal graduated from Public School 86 in the Bronx (1930), Townsend Harris High School in Manhattan (1933), University of Pennsylvania, B.A. (1937) and Harvard Law School, J.D. (1940), where he received a merit scholarship for his third year.

An early rugby football player, he was a member of the 1940 Harvard Rugby Football team, which was the undefeated champion of the Eastern Rugby League.

Kassal was married to Barbara Joan Wax Kassal, a retired business executive from Bonwit Teller in New York City.

He was admitted to the New York State Bar in September 1940 and was an associate in two mid-sized law firms until the American entry into World War II.

Kassal was a member of the Townsend Harris High School soccer, track, and baseball teams.

At the University of Pennsylvania, he was on the 150 lb. football team as a quarterback/linebacker until he fractured his left elbow.

In 1940, his third year at Harvard Law School, he played rugby football as the left-wing on Harvard's undefeated Eastern League championship team and scored three tries.

His original 1940 Harvard Rugby Jersey is on permanent exhibit at the Harvard Club in New York City together with his French Legion of Honor Medal Certificate and his photograph with his wife Barbara at Normandy with President and Michelle Obama.

In 1941 he played the same position on the New York Rugby Club.

Kassal volunteered to serve in the U.S. Army Air Forces in January 1942.

He spent six months at Mitchel Field, Long Island and was assigned to the Officer Candidate School in Miami Beach, Florida followed by the Air Combat Intelligence School in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, graduating with honors from both.

On March 15, 1943 Life magazine published a letter to the editor, written by Kassal, in which he wondered "what formula" enlisted war hero Herman J. F. Bottcher used to "secure his rapid promotion" from the rank of Sergeant to Captain in the span of one week.

The editors of Life replied: "Heroism".

Bottcher was later killed in action in Leyte.

Letters appearing in the following two issues were critical of Kassal's question, and accused him of being a jealous "90-day wonder"—a disparaging term used for newly minted officers from upper-class families who went through accelerated officer programs as Kassal did.

As a second lieutenant, Kassal was assigned to the Mediterranean Theater of Operations.

After three months in an officer replacement center in Algeria, he was assigned by the Seventh Army to assist in the planning and to participate in the D-Day landings at Gela, Sicily.

He arrived on the U.S.S. Orizaba as part of the Second Armored Division's initial landing force.

Two months later, he was chosen to assist in planning and land on D-Day with the Fifth Army at Salerno, Italy, on a Landing Ship, Tank.

He briefed General Mark W. Clark on the Salerno beach.

After the capture of Naples, he again planned air intelligence missions.

With President Franklin D. Roosevelt's approval, he helped plan the air bombardment of the Montecassino Abbey, which was occupied by German artillery units and blocked the passage to Rome.

Cardinal Secretary of State Luigi Maglione told senior U.S. diplomat to the Vatican Harold Tittmann that the bombing was "a colossal blunder ... a piece of a gross stupidity."

(Hapgood & Richardson, p. 225).

The only people killed in the monastery were Italian civilians seeking refuge in the abbey.

When the occupation of Italy was almost complete, Kassal returned to Naples for the Seventh Army invasion at St. Tropez, France, on August 15, 1944.

He briefed General Patch.

Shortly thereafter, he accepted the surrender of seventeen German soldiers at Salon-en-Provence.

The troops in Southern France moved north through Alsace-Lorraine, where they were caught in the midst of the Battle of the Bulge and General Patton's counter-attack.

Thereafter, Kassal's unit moved through Bavaria and was at Augsburg when D-Day was declared.

Because of his knowledge of the Luftwaffe, Kassal was assigned to London to prepare for the invasion of Japan, since it was anticipated that German pilots would be part of the Japanese air defense.

Kassal was awarded the Bronze Star with three Bronze Arrowheads for three invasion landings and was awarded seven Campaign ribbons in the European Theatre.

His clearance was "Top Secret", the highest intelligence classification, and received intelligence data from the "Ultra Secret" classification.

He served in the Army Air Forces for four years and served overseas for 30 months in North Africa, Sicily, Italy, France, and Germany before his discharge on December 31, 1945, with the final rank of captain.

He was a major in the U.S. Air Force Reserves.

After World War II he resumed playing tennis, golf, and skiing until 1998, when he had a double knee replacement.

On June 5, 2009, he received the French Legion of Honor from French Defense Minister Hervé Morin at Les Invalides in Paris, with a ceremony at Colleville-sur-Mer (Omaha Beach) Normandy.