Philip B. Serio US Navy USS Curtiss

I joined the Navy in 1937 and retired in 1957.  I was attached to the USS Curtiss, a sea plane tender.  Our job was to go to sea every Monday morning and come back in for the weekend.  The PBYs we serviced would search a 300 mile radias.  We were in essence a floating gas station for the planes.  When we came in for the weekend, we would refill our tanks with high octain gas.  Which means w had roughly 500 thousand gallons on board when we were attacked. If you watched the movie Tora Tora Tora, a L.T. firefighter said "if that tender blows, the whole harbor goes."  We were on fire until about 2 p.m. We shot down 3 Jap planes and had another crash into our forward gun turret.  We also destroyed a minature sub that sneaked into the harbor.  Our 5" guns put 2 direct hits on the conning tower.  Later, a destroyer dropped a depth charge on it just to make sure. We had a 1000 lb. bomb go right through a 4" steel hanger deck.  It exploded in the after engine room and 21 sailors were burnt to a crisp.  After the attack, they were laid out on the hanger deck.  It was a horrible sight to see.  We had a total of 78 casualties.  I guess I was lucky to survive Pearl Harbor and four years of World War 2.

Information provided by Philip B. Serio

Phil Serio poses with the late Admiral Jeremy Boorda at the christening of the ship Pearl Harbor (LSD-52) at Avondale Shipyards in New Orleans on February 24, 1996