It’s been 75 years since Vito Colonna watched the Japanese planes descend on Pearl Harbor, but his memories of the brutal attack are sharp in his mind.
The 91-year-old Brook Park native admitted that he forged his birth certificate to enter the Navy, signing up when he was just 16.
He was working as a medic on December 7, 1941 and said the memories of the 2-hour invasion are still raw in his mind.
“I thought it was the end of the world, I really did,” Colonna told News 5.
He saved dozens of people but said he cannot shake the horrors of the people that he lost.
“I actually had to walk on my buddies who were dead on the beach and I couldn’t not explain what a feeling it was,” he said. “I’m not afraid to admit it. I cried.”
Colonna would receive two Silver Stars, the Bronze Star and a Purple Heart, among other honors.
He said he suffered spinal damage from Japanese bayonet, leg injuries from the shrapnel and he still keeps the casing of a bullet that was stopped by his helmet.
Colonna has visited the USS Arizona memorial three times since the war.
He eventually made his way back to Brook Park, where he worked as a carpenter. Now he lives in the Ohio Veterans Home in Sandusky.
