"Hearing the Roar" at Pearl Harbor: "Cal" Calderone

From the February 5, 2013, CantonRep.com "World War II: Then and Now: "Hearing the Roar" by Gary Brown.

Adone "Cal" Calderone of Jackson Township was a Pearl Harbor and was a musician of the USS West Virginia, playing the tuba and bass.  Each battleship had its own band and there was a competition scheduled for the different bands, but his couldn't perform because they were scheduled for guard duty.

The band master of the USS Arizona was a friend and had invited him over to spend the night before the attack and have breakfast the next morning.  he declined as he wanted to go to the USS Oklahoma and then go to church with a friend.  He returned to the West Virginia on the night of December 6th.

"If I'd gone to the Arizona, I'd be dead.  Nobody from the Arizona's band survived.  Had he stayed that night on the Oklahoma, he also might have been dead.

That morning on his ship, "I had gotten up, got cleaned up and was talking to a couple friends, then WHAM!"  The third torpedo blew the area I was in up and that's when I got hit by some shrapnel.  A guy next to me said, 'Hey Cal, you're bleeding.'  I didn't even know."

After treatment, he returned to his post, "I was in damage control and we were getting damaged."

I researched for obituaries and didn't find any for him, so he must still be alive.

--GreGen