Veterans Day<\/a>, 97-year-old Robert Gamboa of Largo stands as one of the last surviving members of his naval patrol ship from World War II.\u00a0<\/p>\nHe’s a living link to a generation that helped shape history.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As a musician and father of four, Gamboa\u2019s life has been defined by service, family and a quiet sense of duty that began before he was even old enough to enlist. At just 16, with the world at war, Gamboa wanted to serve so badly that he changed his birthday on his enlistment papers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMy birthday is 9\/28,\u201d he said with a grin. \u201cI changed it to 9\/27, because there was nobody left in the neighborhood. They were all gone. I had to get in it.\u201d<\/p>\n
When officials discovered his true age, Gamboa had to wait another year and get his parents\u2019 permission before joining the Navy as a third-class radarman.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Stationed in Little Creek, Virginia, he and his crew had no idea the danger that awaited them once they shipped out.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI was on a patrol craft escort 873 PCEC,\u201d he said. \u201cWe didn\u2019t have a name. We only had a number. During the war, the ships were all allocated, and we were dispensable,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He didn\u2019t know it then, but his patrol craft was part of the first line of defense.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were left out there all alone to take the first torpedoes or whatever hit them, so they wouldn\u2019t sink the other ones.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bob stayed on the ship until 1949 before joining the reserves in Staten Island, New York. Most of his crew went to Korea.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hard to think that out of 280 guys, 45 came back,\u201d he said through tears. \u201cI still think about them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bob and his late wife, Flo, had four daughters together. The pair met when Gamboa was on leave, playing drums for his band.<\/p>\n
“Back then, I was a real Don Juan, I guess you’d call me,” he joked.<\/p>\n
Over the years, he’s attended reunions with his crew and stayed in touch with the men who served beside him. Until now, he said, there\u2019s no one left to call.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“The oldest guy just passed away in Orlando. He died at 101, a chief radioman.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
Still, Bob doesn\u2019t miss a beat when asked if he would change a thing.<\/p>\n
“I would do it again tomorrow. I don’t think there’s a veteran you could ask that would say they wouldn’t do it,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"“I would do it again tomorrow. I don’t think there’s a veteran you could ask that would say…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42248,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-42247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42247\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}