Theodore F. Bottinelli

Theodore F. Bottinelli
Personal details
Birth name	Teddy Bottinelli
Born	1921 New Orleans, Louisiana
Died	1997
Nativity	United States
Religion	Protestant
Military service
Allegiance	United States
Branch	United States Army
Arm / service	Infantry
ASN	0438996
Rank	Captain
Rank at Ritchie	Second Lieutenant
Camp Ritchie	Class 4 (6 January – 6 March 1943)
Section	17

Research notes on this page are compiled from the source file and later edits. They may be unverified, incomplete, or incorrect, and should not be treated as established fact. Please correct the article or add sources on the talk page. For class-roster terms, see About the data.

Sources & confidence: Treat Research notes as leads, not settled fact. Prefer NARA, the class roster, newspapers, Find a Grave, or published histories for contested claims. Mark unsourced claims with {{Needs source}}, or explain disagreements on talk. Baseline import notes: About the data.

Theodore F. “Teddy” Bottinelli (1921–1997) was a United States Army officer from New Orleans who interrogated Italian prisoners in the Salerno campaign and later trained at Camp Ritchie, Maryland, in Class 4.

Biography

Theodore F. Bottinelli grew up in New Orleans, Louisiana, where his family ran a flower shop on Canal Street. Fluent in Italian, he served as a second lieutenant interrogator during the September 1943 Salerno landings and the hard fight up the Italian peninsula, gathering intelligence from prisoners amid the mud and minefields of the campaign.

By mid-1944 Bottinelli was back in the United States at Camp Ritchie (Class 4), commanding Italian prisoners of war who had volunteered to work for the U.S. government. After the war he kept contact with men he had captured, including Giuseppe “Joe” Manna. The National WWII Museum later displayed a uniform associated with Captain Bottinelli’s service. He died in 1997.

Research notes

• Class 4 at Ritchie appears after Italian combat service (commanding Italian POWs), not as his first MITC course.

Gallery

• 
  National WWII Museum display of Captain Theodore Teddy Bottinelli uniform (RB Archive / museum photo)

Technical record

Field	Imported value
Approx Age at Death	76
Class_ASN	438996
Class_Name	Bottinelli, Theodore F.
match_method	asn_exact_name_exact
row_source	both

Timeline

• 1921 — Born; New Orleans, Louisiana.
• 9 September 1943 — Salerno Bay landings; Italian-language interrogation duty.
• 1943–1944 — Italian campaign interrogator (toward Naples / Monte Cassino period).
• 1944 — Camp Ritchie (Class 4); commanded volunteer Italian POW unit.
• 1997 — Died.

Sources

• National WWII Museum display of Captain Theodore Teddy Bottinelli uniform (RB Archive / museum photo)
• National WWII Museum Facebook post on Captain Theodore “Teddy” Bottinelli’s uniform
• RB Archive, Elizabeth Mullener, “The Invasion of Italy,” Times-Picayune, 9 September 1993
• Blake Pontchartrain / Gambit history of Bottinelli Place
• Camp Ritchie Museum, Inc. (The Ritchie History Museum), Classes 1–31 roster data
• Dan Gross research spreadsheets, including original Excel timeline/roster work, combined with other research and records
• NARA World War II Army enlistment records (where a NARA ASN is present)
• 1940 U.S. Census (where a census match is present)