Carl F. Santo
Heroes of Camden, New Jersey
Corporal Carl F. Santo — Hero of Camden, New Jersey.
Camden Hero Cites Pearl Harbor ‘Hell’
Camden Courier-Post —
Youth Who Aided Wounded Given Medal, Promoted to Corporal
By A. Charles Corotis
“I never thought I’d see the day I’d go through Hell, but I know now what it must be like.”
To at least one member of Uncle Sam’s fighting forces who survived the treacherous Japanese assault on Hawaii, reference to the Stygian regions henceforth will conjure up memories of exploding bombs and the staccato of machinegun bullets taking their toll of defenseless men—and women and children—in undeclared warfare.
Corp. Carl F. Santo, of 2720 Harrison avenue, was 19 when the Japs struck at Pearl Harbor. It is he who paints the Faust-like picture of that opening action when America’s outpost defenders were caught by surprise.
Cited for Bravery
So well did the Camden youth—then Private Santo—acquit himself in the man-made inferno of Hickam Field that bloody day that he has been cited for bravery and awarded the Soldiers Medal by the War Department. But:
“I’m going to get a medal,” Santo wrote his parents under date of June 15 from his Hawaiian station, “but I wish a certain friend of mine was getting it instead of me. He lost his life Dec. 7, and I think that he deserved it more than I.”
The War Department citation says that Santo, an ambulance driver with a medical detachment, worked through burning ammunition to help remove the bodies of 10 men who perished when an Army airplane crashed into the Koolau range in Oahu. Santo made the steep climb with the rescue party and, defying flames which threatened live bombs in the plane, removed the victims and prepared them for the descent, hoping some still were alive and could be saved by hospitalization.
Braved Exploding Shells
During this time, the announcement said, machine gun ammunition near the fire was continually exploding. Santo also dug about the ground known to contain other bombs for identification of the victims.
Corp. Santo’s proud mother, Mrs. James Santo, was not surprised by word of her boy’s heroism.
“That’s just like him,” she said fondly. “He was always thinking of the other person and doing everything he could to help.”
Letters from Hawaii are frequent, but contain little reference to the actual fighting. The first likened the Dec. 7 attack to the Styx but otherwise told nothing of the ordeal Santo had gone through. The only reference he made to the episode which won him the medal was the one deprecating his own heroic performance and praising his dead comrade.
Santo hasn’t been home since he enlisted in the Army April 12, 1940 at the age of 18. After four weeks of training at Camp Hamilton, N. Y., he was sent to Hawaii.
Hopes for Furlough
“We’re hoping Carl can get a furlough and come home in November,” Mrs. Santo said wistfully. “My mother and father, Mr. and Mrs. Fred Trimbach, of 2720 Buren street, will have been married 50 years on Nov. 15 and we’re planning a big party. It will be a real party if Carl is there.”
Whether or not Carl is there, his wife probably will be—the girl he married less than a month before war began and whose most recent letter, received yesterday, told of all American women and children being evacuated from Hawaii.
Young Mrs. Santos was Miss Juanita Gonzales, a government worker from Oklahoma stationed in Honolulu. Her husband’s parents and his five brothers and sisters haven’t yet met her, but they feel they are her friends by the affectionate tone of her letters, which begin, “Dearest Mother” and are signed, “Nita.”
Tells of Good News
The latest one, dated July 9, said, in part:
“I sent you a letter last week and I’m sending you another one. Instead of waiting for your answer to my last one. The reason for this is because I have good news for you. It’s about Carl.
“Remember not so long ago when I wrote and told you about Carl having another stripe if he is good? Well, it’s come. He got it last Tuesday, July 7. And Mother, I’m so very happy. He bought a box of cigars and passed it all around to the boys. You should see how happy he was. He came home one Tuesday and handed me the paper which the Major gave him. I’m going to have it put in a frame.
“He got a citation from Washington which I’m bringing home with me. And the medal is on its way here from Washington. I know you will be proud of him. We will have his picture taken so you can see the extra stripe on his sleeve.”
Learn of Promotion
Thus the Santos learned their son had become a corporal, and risen in rank to that of his father during the World War. Corp. James Santo, now a Public Service bus driver, served 14 months overseas with the motor transport corps of the 87th Division in 1917–18.
The Santos learned of their son’s marriage on Christmas Eve, when they received his first letter after the Dec. 7 attack. For those 17 days they didn’t know whether or not he was alive, and their reaction to the letter was of such intense relief at hearing from him that they didn’t realize, they explained, until later that he was telling them he had married.
“In one letter he told us his wife lost 20 pounds during the bombing of Hawaii,” Santo explained.
Corp. Santo was born March 7, 1922, at 2720 Buren street. He attended Washington school and the Camden County Vocational school. He is one of four sons and two daughters of the Santos, all born in the Cramer Hill section of Camden.
Job is Well Done
Corporal Santo’s story is a typically American tale of a job well done under adversity, and of rewards accepted modestly. And it has a typically American sequel.
Carl’s “kid brother,” Harry, just passed 17, was so impressed by the heroic brother two years his senior who, suddenly has grown so in stature in his eyes, that he applied for enlistment in the Navy. He was told to get his teeth fixed; then come back. And he’s doing just that.
“Soon we’ll have two service stars in that flag in the window,” says ex-Corp. James Santo proudly.