His photo in Times Square, New York, as he passionately kisses nurse Edith Shain on August 14, 1945, has become immortal because it symbolizes the end of World War II. The success of the shot by a master photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt was immediate because it ended up on the cover of Life magazine. On Tuesday, sailor Carlo Muscarello-known to everyone as Moose-died after a brief illness in Georgia at the age of 97.

The news was shared by his daughter Marie. "In the last hours, he was surrounded by the love of us children and grandchildren and was accompanied by his beloved Frank Sinatra songs," she related. Like the great singer, Charles also had a father who emigrated from Sicily.

In the early 1900s, he had chased the "American dream" and moved to New York but, then, returned to Italy to fight in World War I. In 1920 he married fellow villager Maria Attinello and, soon after, they decided to move to New York. They found a home in Brooklyn and had eight children including Carlo in August 1926. His parents at the time of his birth had retained Italian citizenship, which is why even his children Sebastian and Marie can still apply for it.

At the outbreak of World War II, young Muscarello, in part to obtain American citizenship more quickly, had enlisted in the Navy. On the eve of Ferragosto 1945, he was stationed in New York when the admiral commanding his ship announced the Armistice and gave many sailors a free pass as a reward. That morning, out of joy, Muscarello recounted several times, he had had a few too many beers, and when he saw the nurse it came to him to kiss her. He never imagined he would become a symbol of peace. When the war ended, he became a New York Police officer and, once retired, enjoyed retirement with his second wife in Florida.