Readsboro Elementary School

Born January 29, 1930 in Bennington, Vermont, Richard was a son of Alfonso F. Bolognani (1894-1963) and Carmela E. Cristofolini Bolognani (1903-1976). His siblings were Mario Alfonso Bolognani (1928-1934) and one other sibling. There is a marker for Richard in Readsboro Village Cemetery, Readsboro, Vermont.

On August 18, 1952, there was a flash flood in the river near Inje. According to a feature story written by Kelly Sullivan in the Chariho Times (Rhode Island), July 27, 2017, forty-one men from E Company, 279th Infantry, 45th Division, were returning to battalion headquarters from field training exercises. Earlier that week there had been a typhoon and heavy rains. The men were crossing a sandbar waist-deep in a river near Inje when a flash flood from a nearby mountain sent a rush of water down the river. The water level increased to nine feet, and then a nine-foot rush of water crashed over the men in the river. There were eight men and ammunition in a truck following the men on foot. That truck overturned and the men were washed downstream. Stg. Monte Daily of Sargent, Nebraska, shouted to try to warn them, but it was too late. The water came rushing upon them and 31 men died. The platoon leader Fletcher, 2Lt. Clyde tried to rescue his men, but he also drowned. Pulitzer Prize winner war journalist, Hal Boyle, reported that his unit was last reported to be in the thick of heavy fighting at front lines.

Bolognani had worked for Deerfield Glassine in the Franklin County town of Monroe Bridge. He was inducted into the service May 24, 1951, and shipped out days after his marriage to Lena Lowe, the paper said.