SF3c Victor Charles Tambolleo

Victor Charles Tambolleo was a baby when he came from Italy to Maryland.

“As a teen-age resident of Cumberland, Victor was so appalled by what he had read in the newspapers and heard on the radio about the ruthless manner in which Adolf Hitler’s German war machine was running rampant in Europe, that he joined the Navy, just in case his adopted country would be drawn into war,” his friend Jimmie Flanagan wrote years later.

Two years after he enlisted, Mr. Tambolleo was killed on the U.S.S. Arizona in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941. At just 21 he was a shipfitter and petty officer third class.

Mr. Tambolleo was born June 22, 1920 in Minturno, Italy 40 miles northwest of Naples to Nicola and Concetta Tambolleo. In Cumberland near Pennsylvania to the north and West Virginia to the south, the father worked for the Western Maryland Railway. The couple had one other child, a daughter, Clelia, born in the United States.

The son dropped out of Fort Hill High School in the 9th grade. He became a member of Local 1874 of the Textile Workers Union of America. He joined the Navy on Nov. 28, 1939.

The Catholic War Veterans post in Cumberland was named in Mr. Tambolleo’s memory in 1952. He had been a parishioner of St. Mary’s Catholic Church. There is a cenotaph for him at the Maryland Veterans Cemetery in Flintstone 10 miles northeast of Cumberland.

Sources: the Cumberland (Maryland) Evening Times; the Cumberland Times-News; Census; memorial marker; World War II draft registration card. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.