Don Gelasio dei Principe di Caetani (March 7, 1877 – 1934) was an Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 mining engineer, WW I army officer, and diplomat. He belonged to the noble Caetani

Caetani

Caetani, or Gaetani, is the name of an Italian noble family princely family which played a great part in the history of Pisa and of Rome, principally via their close links to the papacy.-Origins:...

 family of Pope Gelasius II

Pope Gelasius II

Pope Gelasius II , born Giovanni Caetani , was pope from January 24, 1118 to January 29, 1119.-Biography:He was born between 1060 and 1064 at Gaeta into the Pisan branch of the Caetani family....

 and Pope Boniface VIII

Pope Boniface VIII

Pope Boniface VIII , born Benedetto Gaetani, was Pope of the Catholic Church from 1294 to 1303. Today, Boniface VIII is probably best remembered for his feuds with Dante, who placed him in the Eighth circle of Hell in his Divina Commedia, among the Simonists.- Biography :Gaetani was born in 1235 in...

.

Life and career

The second youngest of five sons, Prince Gelasio Caetani was born in Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

 in 1877. In 1903 he graduated from Columbia University's School of Mines. He dug gold in Idaho and filled several other mining contracts before founding the firm of Caetani, Burch & Hershey in San Francisco. When Italy entered WW I, he returned home and joined the Italian army engineers. In April 1917 he led the successful tunneling attack with explosives that destroyed a strategic Austrian fort on top of Col di Lana

Col di Lana

The Col di Lana is a mountain of the Fanes Group in the Italian Dolomites, situated in Livinallongo del Col di Lana , a municipality of the Province of Belluno, in the Italian region of Veneto....

. Promoted to Colonel by the end of the war, Gelasio Caetani won three decorations for bravery. In 1922 as a supporter of Mussolini

Benito Mussolini

Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....

, he became Italian ambassador to the United States.