WWII veteran reflects on past, sets sights on educating future generations during 'Honor Flight' trip
TAMPA, Fla. - A Bay Area WWII veteran who vividly remembers his days of service, recently got to visit the war memorials in Washington D.C. and is glad they stand as a reminder to future generations of what he and his brothers in arms went through.
Ninety-five-year-old Adam Gamberdella's excitement boarding an Honor Flight to Washington DC mirrors the feelings he once had enlisting in the United States Navy.
"I wanted to go in when I was 16," he laughed. "My father wouldn’t sign the paper. So, as soon as I turned 17, he had no say, and I went."
The year was 1945, five years into World War II. After basic training, Gamberdella was shipped to Pearl Harbor where his reasons for enlisting were still evident.
Adam Gamberdella joined the military as soon as he turned 17.
"You could see the devastation three or four years later still," he recalled.
From there, Gamberdella sailed west on the USS Admiralty Islands, serving as a storekeeper. He was on the ship when the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Adam Gamberdella reflects on his service as he visits the WWII memorial in Washington D.C.
"We didn’t know the damage that it had done, we just thought it was a super bomb. And then later, my God, you couldn’t believe what it did," Gamberdella shared.
After the war ended, he continued to serve on the Japanese island of Okinawa.
READ: WWII veterans help Dunedin teen record living history
"I saw more action on the island after I landed because the Japanese were still coming out of the hills after the war. They never knew the war was over," Gamberdella stated.
Adam Gamberdella hopes the WWII memorial will educate future generations.
Thanks to ‘Honor Flight’ he recently saw in the World War II Memorial on the National Mall in person for the first time.
Though his service days are still fresh in his mind, he's glad memorials like this stand to educate future generations.
"History is not taught in schools like it used to be," he explained. "Young kids go in school, and they don’t know what World War II was. We keep losing all this. It’s good to have the memorials. People get an idea of what happened in the past that they wouldn’t know otherwise."