Assigned to 737BS, 454BG, 15AF USAAF. William Sherman crew. ETD

In 1936, he enlisted in the Army with the hope of entering West Point. He trained at Fort Totten, in the Queens borough.  Riccardi later returned to civilian life, but not for long. In 1941, before the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and brought the U.S. into World War II, he was drafted into the Army.
“He wanted to be a pilot,” hi daughter said. 

After completing basic training, Riccardi was sent to Victorville, California, to train as a bombardier. 30-Jul-43, he was given his wings and commissioned as a 2nd lieutenant in the Army Air Forces.
Riccardi’s crew took the name of “Moo Juice,” and a big cow was painted on the nose of the plane and on the backs of the leather flight jackets worn by Riccardi and his crew mates.
“They had 50 missions. They were only supposed to do 25, but they were not allowed to go home,” his daughter said. “In the middle of the 50,
he wrote, ‘I have lost my fearlessness.’” Those 50 missions included bombing targets in several European countries, including Italy, Germany, Austria, German-occupied France, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and Romania.

Riccardi described his 24-Apr-44, mission over Romania. “Good bombing creates good morale. And we did good today, hitting the marshalling yards at Bucharest and part of the industrial area. Real solid feeling is so much company — bombers filling the sky as far as you could see. Good [fighter] escorts all the way of P-38, P-51 and P-47. But we got no fighter opposition. Are we depleting their reserves? The enemy cannot take more brutal beatings as of the past few days. Something has to give. Surely the people we fly over on the way to our primary targets must be demoralized. And thankful that we pass them by to reach more important targets,” he wrote.

On 5-May-44, Riccardi wrote in his diary, “The third time proved the winner, and we really plastered that Ploesti area. Large fires and huge billows of black oil smoke that towered up to white cumulus at 15,000 [feet]. It was not such an easy mission for other groups who were at lower altitudes. Saw parachutes open for the first time and one [B-]24 burn and explode in air.
But all parachuted. That part is good news … ..”

A later mission had the same target.

“Paid another visit to Ploesti,” he wrote in August 1944. “This time was a tragic mission. We lost five planes, including all lead elements. Ploesti was completely covered by dense smoke. We could not make a good run what with evasive action and obscurity of target.” That flight was also the last mission for the Moo Juice crew.

Awards: DFC, AM (4OLC), EAME (3BS), WWII Victory.

Post war: “He went in as a private and rose to the rank of major in the Air Force Reserve.”