"Remo Cuniberti served in World War II and the Korean War in a 20-year Navy career. He was on the USS West Virginia when Pearl Harbor was attacked, as is inscribed on his hat." GENE BRECKNER/Valley
Posted on 12/07/2007 3:36:24 PM PST by BenLurkin
When the blasts started, Remo Cuniberti thought he was done for, but not that the United States was under attack.
Cuniberti was in the forward magazine of the battleship USS West Virginia, which was moored in Pearl Harbor.
"I was with a couple friends of mine, way up in the forward magazine near the bottom of the boat, and we were checking propellant charges," said Cuniberti, who now lives in west Palmdale.
In those days, some of the ship's munitions didn't have powder built in and needed powder cartridges - large pellets - for their propellant.
Checking the cartridges was a task he and other seamen did every morning at 8.
"We got started a little early that day," Cuniberti said. "We wanted to go ashore."
Suddenly, he heard a loud explosion. His first thought was that the explosions were coming from inside the ship - and that he was standing in a room full of explosives.
I thought one of the ammunition spaces was blowing up," he said. "If they went, it would cause the ammunition to go, and it would be a pretty heavy explosion."
They hightailed it out of the magazine, hoping to find safety on deck.
"We were going up (the ladder) as fast as we could to get topside, because we thought any minute we'd be blown up ourselves," he said. "By the time we got topside, there were two more explosions - which we later found out were torpedoes."
Cuniberti emerged from the lower decks of the West Virginia to find Pearl Harbor under siege. Torpedoes and bombs were exploding all around. Oil from torpedoes and from damaged ships covered the surface of the harbor and caught fire, burning sailors as they tried to dive to safety.
(Excerpt) Read more at avpress.com ...
"Remo Cuniberti served in World War II and the Korean War in a 20-year Navy career. He was on the USS West Virginia when Pearl Harbor was attacked, as is inscribed on his hat." GENE BRECKNER/Valley
>> “You don’t expect to make it yourself. You’ve got to be lucky.<<
Thank goodness we did have survivors to remind us what it was all about.
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